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SEMINALIA; 

OR, 

AN ENQUIRY INTO 

The Symptoms, Consequences, Causes, Signs, Nature and 
Treatment op 

SEMINAL DISEASES, 

Whether Arising from Abuse, Excess or Irregularity 

IN EITHER SEX ; 

INCLUDING SPERMATORRHEA, STRICTURE, 
IMPOTENCE, SEMINAL GLEET; 

AND INTENDED TO BE A FAITHFUL AND PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ALL 
WHO IN ANY WAY MAY BE INTERESTED. 



BY JOSEPH E. RALPH, M. D., 

El eve de VEcole Roy ale de Medicine, de Paris, 



Ntfti gork: 

EVERARDUS WARNER, 1 VESEY STREET. 

1865. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-five, by Joseph E. Ralph, M. D. 



BAPTIST & TAYLOR, PRINTERS, SUN BUILDING, N. T. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Character of this Work — Abuse or Masturbation defined — Vast 
importance of the subject, and its alarming prevalence — The duty 
of parents and others to understand this subject — Existence of the 
vice often not suspected until too late — The symptoms of abuse — 
Symptoms described and explained in their natural groups — The 
symptoms in the Female described in the same way — May be con- 
founded with G-reen-sickness— Symptoms of Chlorosis. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Consequences of Abuse and Excess Powerful influence in causing 

disease explained— Wby masturbation is more hurtful than the 
natural act — Why more hurtful the younger it is commenced— Why 
more injurious to one than to another — The derangements and dis- 
eases it induces described, explained, and illustrated with cases- 
Irritation of the bladder— Irritation of the urinary canal— Morbid 
erections— Diseases of the testicle— Spermatorrhoea, or seminal 
emissions— Diminution of pleasure in the seminal act— Transitory, 
or incomplete erections — Stricture — Impotence — Disordered mind — 
Insanity— Disordered nervous system— Dyspepsia— Disease of the 
brain — Sleeplessness — The Eyes — Piles — Disease of the heart — Rheu- 
matism and neuralgia— Consumption— Epilepsy — Hypochondria — 
Disease of the spine — Especial curability of most of these, when 
caused by abuse— Consequences in the Female, peculiar to her sex — 
Irritation — Voluptuous dreams — Leucorrhcea — Deranged menstru- 
ation — Hysteria — Diseases of the womb — Barrenness — Loss of pleas- 
ure in, or aversion to, the sexual act— Its occurrence explained — Pe- 
culiar encouragement for female cases. 



IV 

CHAPTER III. 

The Causes of Masturbation and Abuse. — The variety of causes, acting 
directly and indirectly, from without and from within the in- 
dividual, not generally even suspected—Causes which have come to 
the knowledge of the author and of other observers — Causes acting 
in childhood, in youth, and in the adult, of either sex ; from Nurses 
and Servants ; from Precocity ; from a variety of accidental causes ; 
from irritation about the genitals ; from incontinence of urine, 
" wetting the bed;" from injudicious punishments; from the child's 
habits in bed ; from diet ; from schools ; from sitting too long ; from 
moral influences ; from Solitude ; from Celibacy; from Phymosis — 
Remarks on circumcision — Important suggestion. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Signs of Masturbation, or Abuse. — Possible at any period— Why 
every child ought to be the subject of a watchful care— Necessity of 
intelligent watchfulness— When suspicion ought to be excited, in 
connection with, the Health ; the Physical development ; the Habits 
and Manners ; the traits of Character ; with Fits — Every parent, 
guardian, or teacher, ought to understand all this — The Presump- 
tive Signs, connected with Bed ; with certain Habits ; with the Eyes; 
with certain Complaints— The Positive Signs, connected with Bed ; 
with the Hands ; with Stains on the linen ; with peculiar develop- 
ment of the genitals. 

CHAPTER V. 

Tee Nature of the Special Disease. — Is a disease sui generis — Its con- 
stant presence— Reasons for its great importance ; because it claims 
the first attention in the treatment ; because it is not understood by 
physicians ; because, as is explained, life may be lost for want of 
such knowledge— Description, of this disease in the Male— Its pro- 
gress and particular symptoms— How it marks the three distinct 
stages — Formula of each stage with its distinctive symptoms — De- 
scription of the special disease in the Female — Its peculiar progress 
and symptoms in her case — The corresponding three stages — For- 
mula of each stage in the female with the distinctive symptoms — 
Possibility of false suspicion — Important remarks. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Strictures, Seminal Gleet, Impotence. — Peculiar tendency to stricture in 
every case — The true nature of Stricture— It may continue and keep 



up the symptoms, after the seminal disease is cured, with serious con- 
sequences — The symptoms of Stricture — How easily confounded with 
those of abuse— Seminal Gleet explained — May supersede nocturnal 
emissions, deceiving the patient into false security — When it may he 
suspected — Danger from its obscure and insidious character — Local 
symptoms of seminal gleet — Is easily mistaken or overlooked, or 
not even suspected at all — Physicians generally ignore it — Internal 
seminal emissions, still more obscure and serious — Appearance of in 
the urine— Its special symptoms — Such patients said to be troubled 
with ennui, or called " Malades imaginaires" — Curability, in appa- 
rently hopeless cases, if recognized— Impotence. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Treatment.— Introductory Remarks— Prevailing false ideas— Pos- 
sibility of spontaneous cure during period of first stage, in either 
sex, arid always, in children — Reason why so many seem not to have 
suffered from abuse — Spontaneous cure impossible after the first 

- stage is past — Difficulty in obtaining certainty, or a confession, in 
young subjects ; is rather experienced by parents than the physi- 
cian who is used to them — Preventive Treatment — Direct preventive 
means that have been resorted to — A new remedy, preventive and 
curative, proposed— Indirect preventive means, described — Inutility 
of mere precept— Better not to obtrude the subject on the innocent — 
Hygienic Treatment— Diet, adaptation to the different stages, two 
important rules — Directions relating to, Exercise. Occupation. Bed. 
Bathing. Sponging. Marriage — False notions regarding; injudicious 
advice, even from physicians ; when remedial, when hurtful — 
When marriage is the true remedy ; when it should be pro- 
hibited—When proper in the Female case— Medical Treatment— Vi- 
tally important cautions — Devices and snares of heartless charla- 
tanry exposed and dangers pointed out — Complicated character of 
the disease — False ideas of patients — When nocturnal seminal emis- 
sions constitute disease, and when they do not ; the only rule — 
Their natural and proper remedy. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Sexual Excesses and Irregularities. — Capable of the same effects, in 
kind, as abuse — What constitutes excess 1 — Causes disease in 
the same way as abuse does, explanation — Circumstances un- 
der which excesses are most hurtful ; in connection with Age, Cli- 
mate, Habits, Surroundings — State of Health, &c. — Vanity — Sexual 
wants of the system ; may be deceptive from general or local mor- 



VI 



bid causes— Need of a proper rule of judgment— Difficulty in laying 
down any general rule — Imperfection of those heretofore given — The 
only true rules to judge of moderation or excess — Sexual Irregulari- 
ties — How they are injurious and resemble abuses — Variety. After 
meals. Toying. Drunkenness. Imperfect erections. Prolonging the 
act. The Condom. Withdrawing. Lewd Thoughts and Conversa- 
tion ; Moral Onanism— Facts deeply interesting to all, yet generally 
unknown— Concluding remarks. 



PEEFAOE. 



In the following pages the great object lias been to demon- 
strate two weighty, but generally ill- understood, facts ; viz., the 
immense importance of the subject of sexual abuses and ex- 
cesses, in all its bearings ; and, the peculiar dangers of charla- 
tanry in this class of diseases — the further consideration of the 
causes, consequences, signs, special disease, and treatment, but 
adding further proof of the truth of these two propositions. 

Addressed to those concerned, it is written in the plainest 
possible language, perfectly free from anatomical or technical 
terms of any kind, except in one or two instances where no 
english word exists or where such would have been inadmis- 
sible. 

It is also thus rendered suitable to the perusal of parents or 
guardians who would fulfil their duty in understanding this 
important subject ; or, for putting into the hands of those, of 
either sex, who unfortunately need the information and warn- 
ing it conveys. 



No. 80 Amity Street, 
September, 1865. 



Joseph E. Ralph, M. D., 

No. 80 Amity Street. 



CHAPTER I. 

The character of this work. — Abuse defined. — The importance of this 
subject and its alarming prevalence. — Duty of understanding it. — 
The Symptoms. — Symptoms described and explained in their natural 
groups. — Symptoms in the female, described in the same way. — 
May be confounded with Green-sickness. — Symptoms of Chlorosis. 

Opposed to the way in which this subject is usually 
treated in works intended for unprofessional reading, 
I shall not infringe upon the province of the moralist, 
but shall rather, in my proper character as physician, 
consider it simply as a disease, the causes, symptoms, 
nature and consequences of which are to be discovered 
and the remedy pointed out. I therefore propose to 
give the plain and simple truth, leaving all the rest to 
the good sense of the reader; and especially to such 
as are, unfortunately, most interested ; and this I 
believe will be both most acceptable and most useful. 

Masturbation, then, may be defined to be the stimu- 
lation or excitement of the genital organs by friction 
with the hand or other unnatural means and with 

or without a seminal discharge^ in the male applied to 
2 



10 

the external organ and usually carried to the point of 
a seminal ejaculation; in the female, to a certain part 
of the external organs and carried to the point of 
voluptuous sensations or nervous exhaustion. 

It is variously known by the terms, masturbation, 
self-abuse, self-pollution, manustupration, onanism, 
luxuria manuensis, solitary or secret vice, voluntary 
pollution; or by its proximate consequences, as seminal 
weakness, spermatorrhea, nervous debility, nocturnal 
or seminal emissions, wet dreams, sexual debility, 
involuntary pollutions; and popularly, or amongst 
nostrum-venders and the various empirics, whence the 
public get most of their medical knowledge and 
nomenclature, any of these terms are used indis- 
criminately, 

The importance of this subject cannot be over-esti- 
mated, or, I may say, is utterly beyond computation, 
for this vice constitutes a source of disease more pro- 
lific than any other; and is by all authorities acknow- 
ledged to be, to an alarming extent, a cause of 
deterioration of the human race. ' In my opinion/ 
- says one, ' neither the plague, nor war, nor small-pox, 
nor similar diseases, have produced results so dis- 
astrous to humanity as the pernicious habit of onanism; 
it is the destroying element of civilized societies, 
which is constantly in action, and gradually under- 



11 

mines the health of a nation.' There is no disease or 
infirmity which masturbation may not, in one way or 
other, directly or indirectly, and in either sex, be 
the cause of. Many serious and fatal disorders are 
the direct consequence of it, while others to which the 
constitution was liable from hereditary disposition or 
weakness of some particular organ, are developed 
under its influence when otherwise the powers of na- 
ture would have overcome or outgrown them. 

The celebrated commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, 
speaking from his own observation, says, ' The sin of 
self-pollution, which is generally considered to be that 
of Onan, is one of the most destructive evils ever 
practiced by fallen man. In many respects it is 
several degrees worse than common whoredom, and 
has in its train more awful consequences, though 
practised by numbers who would shudder at the 
thought of criminal connection with a prostitute/ 
1 Worse woes than my pen can relate, I have witnessed 
in those addicted to this fascinating, unnatural and 
most destructive of crimes.' 

The profound and learned physician and writer, Dr. 
James Copland, says on the subject, ' So numerous 
are the ills, both of body and mind, which this dis- 
order (seminal weakness) induces — and so certainly 
are those ills entailed upon the subsequent life of the 



12 

person who is its subject, and upon his offspring to the 
third and fourth generation, if, indeed, he possess the 
power of propagating his species, even in the most 
imbecile forms, that it becomes the duty of the 
medical instructor to point out its forms, relations and 
consequences. The subject has been improperly neg- 
lected by both instructed writers and scientific phy- 
sicians, because it is one frequently involving delicate 
ideas, and requiring unpleasant revelations — as the 
due consideration of it unveils the innate and con- 
cealed depravity of our nature. But the vice, the 
moral depravity, of which the disorder at first consists, 
soon creates for itself, in actual and often incurable 
physical disease, a necessity for disclosure — a necessity 
which is not confined to the person concerned, but ex- 
tended to his family and his offspring. This being the 
case with disorders and their usual consequences, which 
involve so extensive and important considerations, 
should they be relinquished by the only persons who 
are able to investigate them aright, and to restore the 
mental and the physical imperfections upon which they 
depend, and be handed over to ignorant harpies, who 
prey upon the wretched sufferers, who take the utmost 
advantage of the fears which torment them, of the 
moral and physical debility which sinks them, and of 
the circumstances in which they are involved, to de- 
ceive, to plunder, and to swindle them, and who have 



13 

neither the knowledge, nor the ability, nor even the in- 
tention, to render them any aid V J 

In an able article published in the Boston Medical 
and Surgical Journal, the writer says ' The per- 
nicious and debasing practice of masturbation is a 
more common and extensive evil with youth of both 
sexes, than is usually supposed. The influence of this 
habit upon both body and mind, severe as it has been 
considered, and greatly as it has been deprecated, is 
altogether more prejudicial than the public, and, as it 
is believed, even the medical profession are aware. 

' A great number of the evils which come upon the 
young at and after the age of puberty, arise from mas- 
turbation, persisted in, so as to waste the vital energies 
and enervate the physical and mental powers of man. 
Not less does it sap the foundation of moral principles, 
and blast the first budding of manly and honorable 
feelings which were exhibiting themselves in the 
opening character of the young.' 

'Many of the weaknesses commonly attributed to 
growth and the changes in the habit by the important 
transformation from adolescence to manhood, are justly 
referable to this practice. This change requires all 
the energy of the system, greatly increased as it is at 
this period of life, which if undisturbed will bring 



14 

about a vigorous and healthy condition of both the 
mental and physical powers. If masturbation be com- 
menced at this period it cannot fail to interrupt es- 
sentially this important process ; and if continued, will 
inevitably impress imbecility on the constitution, not 
less apparent in the body than in the mind, preventing, 
as it will not fail to do, the full developement of the 
powers of both/ 

Mr. Phillips, at the conclusion of a paper on this 
subject, in the Medical Gazette, says ' Since the pub- 
lication of the first part of this paper, I have been 
painfully impressed with the conviction, that the evil 
is more widely spread than I had before conceived; and 
that it will not be largely alleviated by the means I 
have adopted/ ' The pages of a strictly medical jour- 
nal do not meet the eyes of the great mass of suf- 
ferers.' 

Dr. Choate, in his report for the year 1859, remarks, 
1 Next to intemperance and physical derangement, 
with the latter of which causes it undoubtedly has 
much to do, ranks the indulgence in solitary sexual 
excesses. The baneful effects of this habit in both 
sexes have been often dwelt upon, and, I believe, have 
not been overrated. As a cause, I fear it is a growing 
one, increasing with increasing luxury, and w4th the 



15 

diffusion of precocious knowledge which marks the pre- 
sent day.' 

Invading, then, as this vice does, almost every 
family, more or less seriously, and principally the 
youth of both sexes, it behoves every one to be 
aware of it, if not for their own sakes for the sake of 
their children, their younger friends, those over whom 
they may have care or authority; to become acquainted 
with the kind of symptom^ it produces, the signs by 
which the unfortunate practice may be suspected, and 
the means of discovering, in spite of most artful dis- 
simulation, the existence of the habit. In the course 
of this little volume, each of these points will be en- 
larged upon and may be easily turned to. 

It is, doubtless, in every point of view a delicate 
and unwelcome duty; but the delicacy would be false 
indeed that would stand in the way of such a duty. 
However revolting' as Sir W. C. Ellis writes, 'to the 
feelings it may be to enter upon such a subject, it can- 
not be passed over in silence without a great violation 
of duty. Unhappily it has not been hitherto exhibited 
in the awful light in which it deserves to be shown. 
The worst of it is that it is seldom suspected. There are 
many pale faces and languid and nervous feelings 
attributed to other causes, when all the mischief lies 
here; and when it is suspected, it is so delicate and 



16 • 

painful a subject, that it can be scarcely hinted at with- 
out a blush. It should not, however, be forgotten, that 
a great deal of misery in life, and insanity and prema- 
ture death are often the consequences; and it, there- 
fore, demands some sacrifice of feeling, especially from 
those having charge of youth; they ought to be warned, 
indirectly at least, of the consequences. 7 

Dr. Woodward, extensively acquainted with the sub- 
ject, says, ' Much experience has taught me that this 
is an important and necessary subject of education; 
that information should be diffused upon it; that the 
young should be admonished, and the whole community 
enlightened, so that no one himself shall suffer, or wit- 
ness the ravages of the vice upon those around him, 
without being able to detect it, and avoid it before it 
is too late. A hint from a parent who understands the 
case } may be sufficient. A tract extensively circulated, 
may do much good as a preventive, and a cure before 
serious injury is done to the health or intellect/ 

THE SYMPTOMS OF ABUSE. 

Having made these preliminary remarks I now pro- 
ceed to give the general symptoms in the order in 
which they commonly appear, and increasing in variety 
and severity as the practice is persisted in. I shall 
then describe them more particularly in their natural 



groups, which will afford the opportunity to add some 
explanatory remarks. 

The symptoms may be divided into three grades, 
answering to the stages of the actual disease. Thus, 
there is generally, at first, increased appetite, lassitude, 
paleness, disinclination to arise in the morning; then, 
absent mindedness, decreasing liveliness and lightness, 
and an unwillingness to be alone, hot hands, flushing 
of the skin, quickened pulse, biting of the nails. As 
the evil begins to tell upon the system nocturnal semi- 
nal emissions commence, sleep is unrefreshing and 
there is increasing fondness for bed. Indigestion is 
complained of, with a sense of dragging at the pit of 
the stomach; costiveness; headache, more particularly 
in the back of the head; noise in the ears. Emaciation 
becomes evident, the skin grows sallow and the mus- 
cles soft, and the testicles hang too low. Nervousness 
or shyness, a noticeable seeking for- solitude, and grow- 
ing timidity; indisposition to study, drowsiness during 
the day or at studies, want of memory. Darkness ap- 
pears under the eyes, or pimples come on the face; the 
urine is passed oftener than is natural; the character 
becomes changed, irritable, quarrelsome, impatient or 
resentful. Female society is avoided, yet they are 
secretly and curiously watched; exciting or loose read- 
ing is eagerly devoured. Erections are easily produced, 



18 

and if connection is sought are transient, and the act 
prevented or quickly terminated by a precipitate dis- 
charge. If the unfortunate practice is still persisted 
in the symptoms now rapidly increase in gravity; dys- 
pepsia is established, with obstinate constipation; natu- 
ral or inherited weakness or disease are developed; 
there is great depression of spirits, cowardice, dislike 
for society and positive aversion to the company of 
females; incapacity for mental or bodily employments; 
is melancholic, irritable without cause; always com- 
plaining of ill-health and dreading the worst diseases; 
ready to fancy insults, suspicious, inordinately exalted 
or depressed by slight causes. Nocturnal seminal 
emissions take place unconsciously; the external or- 
gans are relaxed, and there is great emaciation and 
debility. In some cases the hair thins, and if the vice 
was begun before puberty the beard is checked or 
hardly appears; seminal gleet, in one form or other, 
sets in, impotence, imbecility, marasmus, lingering 
death. Of course, as in all diseases, every symptom is 
not found in each case, but some always are and any 
may be. The above is a superficial view of all the 
symptoms that masturbation may produce. 

But it must be remembered that this habit is far from 
affecting every one alike. Though it is probable, nay, 
certain, that almost every one, especially of the male 



19. 

sex, has practiced it more or less at some period of 
their youth, yet in a great proportion it has happily 
been early abandoned under some influence or other; 
in a smaller, but still large number, it has been longer 
continued, but, under a sense of its unmanliness or dan- 
gers, has been struggled against more or less success- 
fully; whilst in the smaller number it has gained 
ascendency over and more or less injured or destroyed 
its victim. 

Now, in the first group no positive injury has been 
done to the constitution, or, nature in the exuberant 
vitality of youth, has overcome and outgrown it, and 
the individual forgetting or thinking lightly of the 
matter supposes all he afterwards hears to be exag- 
geration — so many a one has expressed himself to me. 
In the second group, the person has grown up to a 
puny or delicate manhood ; or, though seemingly ro- 
bust, yields unaccountably to sickness or is unexpect- 
edly carried off by consumption or some other com- 
plaint; or his mind gives way under troubles; or if he 
marries he either has no offspring, or it dies young or 
is puny ; and such persons never confess to their 
attending physician, who generally — and partly for 
this very reason, knows little or nothing about it if 
he did. 

A professional friend lately told me that not one of 



20 

those schoolfellows that he knows to have practiced 
masturbation, though some have grown up strong and 
hearty, have attained more than a bare mediocrity. 
The practical writer in the ' Boston Journal' before quot- 
ed, remarks that ' even those who have indulged so cau- 
tiously as not to break down the health or the mind, 
cannot know how much their physical energy, mental 
vigor, or moral purity, have been affected by the indul- 
gence/ The condition of those composing the third 
group will be found in a perusal of the later conse- 
quences of this vice. 

I will now proceed to the description and explana- 
tion of some of these symptoms in their natural groups. 

The increased appetite is perhaps the very first effect 
produced; it is probably an instinctive effort of nature 
to meet the premature or unaccustomed drain, and may, 
for a while, be actually mistaken for a healthy and 
gratifying indication. Yet, upon closer observation it 
will be found that, contrary to all expectation, the child 
or youth grows thinner instead of stouter, and paler, 
especially in the face, that his flesh is softer and he 
shows signs of lassitude not usual at his age. All this 
is sometimes ascribed to growing too fast; but the 
sooner such delusion is dissipated the better, for that 
is not a cause of disease except in a limited and recog- 
nizable way. And he does not arise in the morning 



21 

with the freshness and vivacity that sleep ought to 
have given him. 

A fondness for being alone is never a right or natural 
feeling in young people, and it can have almost no 
other cause than this ; and if to this are added a list- 
lessness or inattention that used not to be, and less of 
the gay, thoughtless or buoyant state of mind and 
desire for amusement, that belong to the young, the 
case should be closely watched. 

Heat of the hands may be merely dependant on a 
cold, or indigestion, want of rest or over-excitement ; 
but if noticed frequently and without any such causes, 
and especially if the skin of the body flushes over and 
the pulse is quicker than natural, it is a suspicious 
symptom. Biting the nails has been noticed as a 
frequent habit in young masturbators. 

Nocturnal Seminal Emissions. Irritation of the 
seminal organs generally early induces these. They 
generally continue for some time to awaken the sub- 
ject, and if he has attempted sexual connection are 
likely to be accompanied by lascivious dreams. 
These involuntary discharges are now maintained by 
local morbid action ; the vice is no longer only a 
habit the mere abandonment of which is called for, 
as was the case in the earliest period ; the morbid 



22 

action now persists and develops its effects. Sleep 
becomes unrefreshing, and, after an emission the 
person wakes up with difficulty, feels heavy or stupid, 
and the effect lasts partly or through the day ; 
fondness for bed, or rather aversion to getting up, 
increases. 

Indigestion is the first sign that the stomach is im- 
plicated. It will be remembered that at first the appe- 
tite was increased ; still in the middle stage the de- 
rangement is rather functional, but it already begins 
to bring its own train of symptoms, though real dis- 
ease, dyspepsia, has not yet set in. The appetite is 
uncertain, in some fastidious, in others rather vora- 
cious ; but it generally gradually diminishes ; appetite 
for breakfast is poor, nothing is relished, or it sud- 
denly ceases in a feeling of faintness or nausea ; the 
bowels grow costive and the breath bad. It is 
derangement of this most vital process of healthy 
nutrition that, as much or perhaps more than any- 
thing else, exaggerates any latent debility or morbid 
predisposition, or lays the system open to attacks 
of disease from external causes ; and, in connexion 
with the nervous exhaustion hinders the full develop- 
ment of the body both as to size and- perfection. 
It also becomes the principal cause of headaches 
and other pains ; and as the digestive derange- 



23 

ment increases the innate sense of shame, and 
self-accusation, more and more assume the character 
of dejection and melancholy. Palpitations are also 
frequent, often accompanied with trembling or faint- 
ness, or a stuffed feeling in the chest, or short 
breath. The voice is injured in its quality. The 
peculiar bluish or dark color about the eyes and 
fulness of the lower lid increase and the lids grow 
irritable ; pimples come on the face, and such persons 
pick them more than others would. The urine is pale 
and passed often, and begins to be followed by the 
lingering of a few drops afterward, characteristic of 
threatening stricture. 

Emaciation, to some degree, is general; and in those 
who are constitutionally weak, is an early and marked 
symptom. Connected with it are sallowness of com- 
plexion or unnatural paleness and want of color in 
the lips ; there is evident want of exercise, fresh air 
and sunshine, plenty of which go far to prevent this 
unfortunate habit from being contracted at all. The 
flesh loses its firmness, the muscles become soft or 
flabby, the bag of the testicles too loose, the per- 
sonal habits lazy or indolent. There is a want of firm- 
ness in the step and a growing distaste for sport, 
exercise or continued occupation ; stooping and round- 
shouldered. In some exceptional instances, however, 



24 

there is no emaciation, but, with the other signs of 
debility a plump, apparently muscular and healthy 
appearance continues. 

Nervousness. With this relaxation of the muscular 
the nervous system necessarily sympathizes ; the per- 
son is easily agitated or startled, or sighs, and is 
annoyed by blushing when unexpectedly addressed, 
especially by females, or on slight occasions ; is 
wanting in self-confidence, timid, bashful or nervous 
to an unnatural degree, irritable and bad-tempered ; 
or it sometimes takes the form of positive dejection 
and craves solitude. This depressed condition of the 
nervous system involves the intellect, the powers of 
which are relaxed ; the person grows inattentive, 
slow or apparently careless to perceive or answer ; 
memory is impaired, and study becomes, difficult or 
irksome. 

Erections. The special disease established in the 
parts soon begins to cause a morbid excitability on 
which another set of symptoms both local and general 
depends. Thus erections are too easily excited; by 
mere pressure of the clothes, an accidental touch, or 
any trifling thing ; or, by means of reflected sympathy 
a mere thought, a picture, a loose joke or allusion, a 
woman's ankle, will excite erections quite contrary to 
the will, and happening in the streets or anywhere, 



25 

become a source of so much annoyance that the 
individual is afraid to be about without such a coat 
as will conceal its occurrence. If sexual connection 
is attempted, or marriage, as is so often ignorantly 
recommended as a cure-all for these troubles, is 
tried, the sexual act cannot be half performed, the 
seminal ejaculation either taking place before or at 
the moment of entrance, or very quickly after, without 
satisfaction or pleasure, and to the mortification or 
disgust of both parties. 

Dyspepsia. The derangement of the stomach which 
had existed as indigestion more or less severe, at 
length becomes confirmed sympathetic dyspepsia ; 
generally with obstinate costiveness, sometimes with 
diarrhea, or changing from one to the other ; and con- 
stipation with hardened stool remaining in the lower 
gut increases the local irritation and emissions. When 
there is inherent organic weakness of any kind and 
it has remained inactive so long it is now likely to 
break forth, sometimes violently and uncontrollably — 
first in the popular mind is consumption, but it may 
be other as serious disorder. All the symptoms grow- 
ing out of indigestion increase ; the eyes become 
sunken, the face pinched, the urine worse, the breath 
offensive, the skin dry, harsh or unhealthy, the per- 
spiration disagreeable ; languor ; vacancy or unmean- 
3 



26 

ing expression in the face ; the voice loses its rich- 
ness and becomes thin and unmanly. 

Depression of Spirits. Intimately connected as the 
brain is with the stomach and the sexual organs, it 
must necessarily sympathise with their derangements ; 
and when to this is added the uncompensated loss 
of ' that precious liquid which is the cause of beauty, 
youth and love/ the train of nervous symptoms is by 
no means astonishing, and cannot but become grad- 
ually impressed on the countenance. And the further 
depressing influence of shame and self-condemnation 
also profoundly depresses the nervous centre, even 
to weakening the love of life itself — as has been said, 
1 The wasting of that which gives life excites disgust of 
life in the highest degree/ Still it depends somewhat 
upon the nature of the individual, for, just as in 
stricture of the urinary canal from other causes, 
while one who is of a lively turn of nrhid, full of gaiety, 
is but little affected in his spirits, one of a contrary 
turn of mind, naturally retiring or thoughtful, will be 
sadly affected. The mind becomes weak, filled with 
vague apprehensions ; the person grows suspicious, 
fancies he is watched, or that, through all his art and 
dissimulation people suspect his case ; every thing 
seems to urge him to moroseness and solitude. 
Memory grows weak — very much as in stricture 



21 

especially numbers, dates and names are forgotten ; 
the train of thought is easily broken so that he forgets 
the rest of what he was saying, or stops for want of 
some word or expression he was about to use. He 
grows peevish, irritable, easily taking offence yet 
failing to resent it ; unable to look another in the eye, 
or to bear his gaze, or threat ; and this loss of con- 
fidence in self gradually becomes actual cowardice ; 
and it is a curious fact that just. in proportion as a 
man is conscious of inability with vaomen his courage 
in the face of men vanishes. Often, whilst haunted 
by a continual fear of death there is a strong pro- 
pensity to commit suicide. 

Seminal Emissions, happening involuntarily, or as the 
result of disease, are of several kinds. The simplest, 
or those occurring at night, generally with a dream 
and awakening the subject, have been already men- 
tioned. There are still remaining to be considered, 
Nocturnal emissions without any dream or conscious- 
ness — Internal emissions — Diurnal emissions ; the 
gravity of the case increasing with each. 

Nocturnal Emissions occurring unconsciously never 
commence till actual local disease has been for some 
time established, and has extended to the orifices of 
the seminal tubes; and whether it is attended with 
any of the other symptoms in severe form or not the 



28 

case ought to be looked upon very seriously, for if 
allowed to proceed it will terminate in the worst way 
, in one direction or other. As the more serious char- 
acter of emissions becomes established or continues 
in force all the other symptoms increase in severity; 
emaciation in some cases becomes extreme, the legs 
and knees weak and the gait unsteady; soreness of 
the lower part of the back-bone, not only shown by 
weakness or pain in the back, as formerly, but by 
tenderness or soreness on external pressure; the back 
is bent or stooping, the shoulders round and drawn 
together, and the chest contracted. 

Internal Emissions exist when instead of being 
thrown forward and out in the natural manner the 
semen makes its way backward into the bladder. 
Now, this constitutes a subject of the greatest import- 
ance, for several reasons; for instance, if a patient has 
had nocturnal seminal emissions and been cured of 
them, or nearly so, and yet he makes little or no 
further progress toward recovery, but, on the contrary, 
the case either stands still or the symptoms of 
general depression increase, internal emissions may 
be the cause; generally brought on by some empirical 
treatment, especially by the use of one of the several 
mechanical contrivances advertised to cure - seminal 
losses/ or whatever it may happen to be termed, 



29 

! without medicine or operations.' Or, masturbation 
may have brought about internal emissions — they may 
have soon spontaneously superseded the noctural 
discharges. This always puts even the sufferer him- 
self off his guard, and he lingers, and dies of con- 
sumption, marasmus, or other disease, without a 
single effort being directed to the true source of all 
the trouble. Or, lastly, it may set in after long-con- 
tinued regular sexual excesses have been given up 
either from sickness or reformation, and then they may 
never once be suspected. How many persons have 
perished in this way who might have been saved can 
never be computed, but the number must be consider- 
able. The subject of emissions will be more partic- 
ularly explained in chapter VI. 

Diurnal Emissions, or Seminal Gleet, is of several 
kinds. It may be observed in the form of discharge of 
a slimy substance coming from the penis when costive, 
the semen being forced out of its receptacles into the 
urinary canal by the stool pressing against them in its 
passage, or by the straining effort connected with it. 
Another occurs when the local irritability and relax- 
ation has reached such a degree that a kind of half - 
erection is produced by slight exciting causes, with 
feeble ejaculation and but little sensation, and the 
semen is not thrown out but dribbles away. Or, it 



30 

may be found in the form of a slimy substance mixed 
with or following the last drops of the urine. It is a 
symptom of serious import, and, with stricture, forms 
the subject of chapter VI. 

With seminal gleet aversion to females is confirmed; 
life itself becomes irksome and distasteful; the organs 
are flaccid, the testicles soft or wasted, or become a 
mass of varicocele, and the bag in some instances is 
greatly attenuated and pendulous. Impotence has of 
course long been established; and dorsal consumption 
gradually terminates the poor victim's sufferings if 
some other disease has not already shortened his 
existence. 

It would seem impossible that such a practice 
should be carried so far, and in the very face of 
such fearful effects; but Dr. Copland observes, ' There 
can be no doubt that the individual who has once 
devoted himself to this Moloch of the species becomes 
but too frequently its slave to an almost incredible 
degree. A patient who was sent to London for my 
advice confessed that he had practiced this vice seven 
or eight times daily from the age of thirteen uyrtil 
twenty-four; and he was then reduced to the lowest 
state of mental weakness, associated with various 
bodily infirmities; indeed, both mental power and 
physical existence were nearly extinguished.' 



31 



THE SYMPTOMS OF THE FEMALE. 

Most of .the symptoms are of course the same, and 
all have the same general character, in either sex; still 
there are peculiarities growing partly out of different 
habits and education, and partly out of difference of 
structure and nervous organization. The vice is cer- 
tainly not as universally prevalent among girls as 
among boys and young men ; but one peculiarity in 
the former is that it is apt to be begun earlier, which 
may go far to account for the greater frequency of 
serious results in proportion to the number of cases; 
and, to a great extent, for the ill-developed and unin- 
viting female forms often met with. 

The earlier symptoms or effects are much the same 
in either sex; the paleness of the face however is 
more remarkable, is of a more pallid, sickly hue — she 
looks worse than the boy generally does; the lips 
lose their bright, attractive redness, and the tongue 
and gums are pale; the dark tint about the eyes is 
more marked; there is the same inclination to be alone, 
somewhat dejected manner, listlessness, disrelish of 
fun and withdrawing from company, and especially 
from that of her own sex — not that natural timidity 
which is an ornament to a girl, but rather a confused 
or embarrassed timidity, or wish to avoid attention, 
and which is not overcome by games, dancing or any 



32 

of the amusements of her companions ; slight emacia- 
tion with good or ravenous appetite; cramps in the 
stomach; weak sight and irritable eyelids; inclination 
to go to bed early and lie long after awaking: pimples; 
lassitude, weariness,* and dislike of any occupation or 
study. 

"With the continuance of the habit the symptoms 
assume a more definite character, and are more dis- 
tinctly influenced by the sex ; thus, corresponding with 
the appearance of seminal emissions or spermatorrhoea 
in the male, chronic disease of the internal sexual 
organs is established, and may be considered as mark- 
ing a second stage, with new symptoms and aggrava- 
tion of those already existing. 

Leucorrhoea begins to show itself, though in but a 
slight and premonitory way — but it is to be found, 
more or less, in every case of masturbation ; pains are 
felt in the loins and back ; sleep is unrefreshing and 
fitful, and may be attended by profuse perspiration ; 
she awakes wearier than when she retired. 

Indigestion gives rise to more distress ; heart-burn, 
pains in the pit of the stomach and between the shoul- 
ders, nausea and faintness ; the bowels are constipated, 
the breath faint ; the voice loses its sweetness, the 
eyes their winning expression, and the skin its charm- 
ing softness ; it grows dry and harsh, the perspiration 



33 

becomes unhealthy and the odoriferous secretions are 
altered — the indescribable but ever-grateful exhalation 
from the body is destroyed ; the hands are cold and 
clammy, or burning, or look clear and the veins are 
imperceptible. 

Nervousness is more apparent ; there is a tendency 
to swimming of the head, ringing in the ears, involun- 
tary and deep-drawn sighing ; frequent headaches, 
especially from reading or giving attention to any- 
thing ; strange feelings and apprehensions ; irregular 
and unaccountable pains ; she is dejected and sad — old 
pleasures loose their attraction and new ones' are not 
sought or equally fail ; she is fond of solitude, but the 
aversion to society refers only to female company, for 
this vice in the girl necessarily excites a longing after 
the other sex in which company she generally delights ; 
, all employment- or exercise is distasteful, except novel- 
reading, for which the appetite is insatiable. After 
each act of self-abuse the nervous feelings are espe- 
cially aggravated, and there is great lassitude and 
aching weariness. 

Emaciation is more relentless in the female ; the face 
soon becomes sharp and pinched, gets an old, care-worn 
look, or is frightfully pale and expressive of languor 
and indifference ; the swelling lines of the bust and 
hips shrink away ; the arms and legs lose their soft, 
elastic roundness and become wasted, flabby, angular 



34 

and ugly ; the chest grows flat and contracted and the 
strength of the back is lost ; she is troubled with pal- 
pitations ; the breath is short, a little walk is exhaust- 
ing instead of refreshing, and she is obliged to stop 
and rest ; the feet and ankles swell ; the character be- 
comes apathetic, there seems to be a languishing of the 
powers of life ; she is always looking ill — feels that 
she is not what she was, and ages prematurely. 

Menstruation is deranged, growing painful and scanty, 
and as this continues or increases the dyspeptic symp- 
toms increase, and the nervousness also — she is terri- 
fied by everything ; a hysterical tendency becomes 
apparent, and which may lead to actual hysterics ; pain 
is sometimes complained of in the nose ; the breath 
gr^ws offensive ; the urine cannot be held easily, and 
is passed too often or with slight pain. And now, as 
in the <niale, any natural weakness or hereditary ten- ^ 
dency to disease and especially pulmonary consump- 

| tion, becomes developed and active. 

But, if no such thing occur and the practice is per- 
severed in, or if the injury already done progresses, . 
serious disorder of the internal sexual organs is estab- 
lished, with still more alarming manifestations. Leu- 
corrhcea is confirmed and bad ; the neck of the womb 
becomes permanently engorged, excoriated or ulcer- 
ated ; the urine is muddy ; the voice is altered or harsh, 

' the breath offensive, the enamel of the teeth cracks or 






35 

breaks. The temper and disposition is changed ; the 
dejection of spirits grows into confirmed melancholy, 
or religious monomania ; strange delusions, unfounded 
fears — mental misery in some form or other ; or fits. 
She is sterile ; emaciation is extreme ; and the victim, 
her life having long been a burden, gradually sinks ; 
and often, it can not be said that she died of any defi- 
nite disease. 

Now, all this is but a very moderate picture of what 
may, and does, result from the miserable infatuation of 
self-abuse, in either sex. I have seen such cases — and 
deaths that I am convinced had no other cause ; though 
many are recorded in medical writings, but a mere frac- 
tion ever come to light ; and the numbers that die of 
consumption and other diseases the direct consequence 
of masturbation — the true cause being neither con- 
fessed nor suspected, cannot be known. 

It may be objected that, in the female, many of these 
symptoms, at any rate those of the earliest stage, 
merely indicate chlorosis or the green-sickness, com- 
mon in girls just reaching the age of puberty; and 
many of them are the same ; but this always occurs be- 
tween different disorders that implicate or are situated 
in the same parts, and generally constitutes the great 
difficulty in arriving at correct opinions. I will add, 
simplified and shortened, Dr. R. Dunglison's description 
of the green-sickness. l At the beginning of an attack 



36 

of chlorosis the patient feels unusual languor and de- 
pression of spirits, frequently crying without obvious 
motive ; constriction of the chest, yawning, palpita- 
tions; the countenance becomes pale; the eyelids puffy, 
and, especially in the morning, surrounded by a black- 
ish circle ; the white of the eyes extremely white. The 
skin is usually dry and lurid ; the pulse very rapid, 
but weak. Nutrition falls off, the flesh is soft and 
flabby, and dropsical collections form under the skin. 
The appetite becomes greatly diminished or annihilated, 
or undergoes wonderful mutations, such substances as 
chalk, earth or ashes being greedily desired; at other 
times a marked desire for acids. The author had a pa- 
tient who preferred eating slate pencils to any other 
article. Digestion is generally impaired ; often with 
some fever and alternations of constipation and diarr- 
hoea; the urine is watery. Occasionally hemorrhages 
take place. There is almost always leucorrhoea, with 
suppression of, or very light colored menses ; hysterical 
or nervous symptoms, headache, ringing in the ears. 
In unfavorable cases the patient becomes gradually 
emaciated and dies of dropsy, or worn down by a 
hectic.' 

Unless the chlorosis be a consequence of self-abuse, 
which indeed it may be, attention to the case will soon 
detect the difference between the two affections. 



CHAPTER II. 

« 

THE CONSEQUENCES. 



The Consequences of Abuse and Excess. — Its powerful influence in 
causing disease explained — Why Masturbation is more hurtful than 
the natural act — Why more hurtful the younger it is commenced — 
Why more injurious to one than to another — The derangements and 
diseases it induces described and explained, with cases — The conse- 
quences in the female peculiar to her sex — Why more easily cured 
in her. 



Growing out of the intimate and universal nature of 
the sympathies that exist, in a state of health, between 
the generative organs and the rest of the body ; and 
owing also to the wonderful influence they exert over 
the mature development and subsequent condition of 
the whole organization ; the morbid influence emanat- 
ing from these organs when abused not only imparts 
activity to any tendency to disease from whatever 
cause arising, but is capable of originating diseased 
action ; and it also superadds to other diseases its own 
characteristics, thereby adding both to their complica- 
tion and to their danger. 



38 

Hence masturbation is with justice accused of be- 
ing, directly or indirectly, the cause of almost every 
other disease by those who have made this subject 
their study. Dr. L. Deslandes observes, ' This vice 
then compromises both the present and future health 
of the body ; the present by the diseases with which 
it is accompanied, and the future by those for which 
it prepares. Hence if the young man escapes with 
life, he is as it were loaded with a tribute of ills which 
he must pay before long and perhaps always. Thus 
the indirect influence of onanism in producing human 
suffering is enormous. I consider it even as greater 
in proportion than that of the most immediate conse- 
quences of this fatal habit.' 

In view of the serious importance of this subject, 
therefore, and to give the reader every possible ground 
for full and perfect confidence in the simple and un- 
colored truth of the statements here made, I shall quote 
from writers of great special experience, and also il- 
lustrate the principal consequences with cases taken 
partly from their writings and partly from my own 
practice. 

Some of the disorders already placed among the 
symptoms will be found again among the consequences, 
because, what was at first merely afunctional derange- 
ment or disorder, or symptom, by frequent repetition 



39 

and increasing duration at last becomes an established 
or actual disease. 

Dr. Copland says \ Although this vice is most pre- 
valent among young persons, its ill. effects generally 
becoming apparent to them with riper years, yet it is 
not infrequently indulged in, by persons of both sexes, 
during advancing years ; and is generally the cause of 
most of the complaints observed in unmarried persons 
after the age of twenty-five years, as well as sometimes 
before that period. It is certainly the chief cause 
of the lives of this class of persons being of much less 
mean duration than those of the married/ 

Hufeland, in his ' Art of Prolonging Life/ observes 
of this vice, ' Of all the means of hastening death, 
with which I am acquainted, there are none so highly 
destructive, and in which every baneful property is so 
much united, as in these. None comprehend so per- 
fectly all the four requisites for that purpose, which I 
have already laid down ; and indeed these melan- 
choly excesses may be considered as the most highly 
concentrated process for shortening vital duration.' 

1 The first means of shortening life was, lessening 
the vital power itself. But what can more lessen the 
sum of the vital power within us than wasting those 
juices which contain it in the most concentrated form, 



40 

as well as the first vital spark for a new being, and 
the most powerful balsam for our own blood V 

1 The second manner of shortening life ^consists in 
lessening the necessary solidity and elasticity of the 
vessels and organs. But it is well known that nothing 
tends so much to relax, to soften, and to corrupt, as 
this dissipation/ 

1 The third manner, or more rapid consumption, can 
be promoted by nothing so much as by a circumstance, 
which, as appears from the example of all nature, is 
the highest degree of vital activity ; and which, as be- 
fore shown, is in many beings the conclusion of their 
whole life/ 

' Lastly, proper restoration is thereby prevented in 
an uncommon degree, because that rest and that equi- 
librium necessary for repairing what has been lost are 
impeded, and the organs deprived of the power requi- 
site for the same purpose ; but, in particular, because 
these debaucheries have a peculiar weakening effect 
on the stomach and the lungs, and thereby specifically 
desiccate the grand source of our restoration/ 

And, in reference to the mind, he says * It appears 
that between both these organs, that of the soul 
(the brain), and those of generation, as well asbetween 



41 

the two functions, that of thinking and that of gener- 
ating, the one spiritual, and the other physical crea- 
tion, there is a very intimate connection ; and that 
they both require the noblest and most refined part of 
the vital power. We find, therefore, that they both 
act alternately on each other, and have a mutual and 
contrary effect. The more we strain the mental facul- 
ties, the less vigorous will be our power of generation ; 
the more we stimulate the generative power and waste 
its juices, the more does the soul lose its faculty of 
thought, its energy, its acuteness, and its memory. 
Nothing in the world can so much and so irretrievably 
ruin the brightest mental talents as excess of this 
kind. 7 

The question is sometimes asked, why masturbation 
is, in itself, more hurtful than the sexual act ; I will 
answer this and the several following points by quota- 
tions. Dr. M. Lallemand replies thus : ' Whilst the or- 
gans are healthy, and intercourse is proportioned to the 
wants of the system, its effect is simply tonic and stim- 
ulant. The semen is more abundantly secreted and 
more energetically retained in the seminal vesicles, and 
so far the influence is useful, being within proper 
bounds. Coitus therefore is, under favorable circum- 
stances, the natural excitement of the genital organs. 
This is not the case with regard to masturbation, and 



42 

the other abuses of which I have spoken, and hence 
such habits are so pernicious. Disturbance, disorder, 
and irritation alone result from unnatural abuses ; a 
tonic effect is never produced.' 

Dr. Deslandes, on this point, says, ' One reason 
why masturbation is more pernicious than coition 
arises from the state of mind during the two acts. The 
onanist, and here we allude only to those who have 
some ideas of sexual intercourse and love, having no 
material object which is the beginning and the end of 
its pleasures, the imagination must supply and invent 
it. This mental labor renders the sensations stronger 
and the body more disposed to feel them. Added to 
these, the onanist is desirous of prolonging his feeling, 
and having under his control certain circumstances 
which in sexual intercourse hasten the denouement, 
he retards it. Thus with fatal skill he gives to this 
destructive vice all the power it can possess, and ex- 
periences all the evil which this vice can cause.' 

The younger the habit is commenced the more hurt- 
ful it is. Dr. Deslandes says, ' Other things being 
equal, the period of life when the act of venery is at- 
tended with the least dangers is that which begins 
when the organization is completed, is perfected ; and 
as the reverse of this statement we may say, that, ve- 
nereal enjoyments anterior to this period are more de- 



43 

[trimental the less perfect the system is. The perfect 
state then is the point at which the system must ar- 
rive, before the act of venery is permitted, and before 
marriage is allowable. There is then no longer any 
fear of disturbing the formative process.' 

And Dr. Copland's remarks are still plainer ; he says 
that ' it should be recollected that self-pollution is of- 
ten commenced at an earlier or more immature age 
than that at which the intercourse of the sexes can 
take place in the usual states of civilized society ; and 
that hence it is the more injurious, because it impairs 
or interrupts the due development of both mind and 
body, at a period when such development receives, in 
the healthy frame, its chief impetus and full consum- 
mation from the genital organs and secretions.' 

The very celebrated J. J. Rousseau, whose opinion on 
this subject is peculiarly valuable, writes, ' until the 
age of twenty the body grows and has need of all its 
substance : continence is natural, and if not observed 
it is at the expense of the constitution.' 

Masturbation is well known to be more injurious to 
one person than to another ; or, the active develop- 
ment of its effects may depend upon some inapprecia- 
ble condition of the individual. The reason cannot al- 
ways be given, or the particular condition recognized 



44 

or foreseen ; Dr. Deslandes thus states the facts ; ' Two 
individuals indulge in onanism : one becomes ill in a 
few weeks ; but the other resists the pernicious habit 
longer. These two individuals were certainly in dif- 
ferent states, as the event proves. This fact however 
was indicated previously by no circumstance : their 
age, constitution and manner of living before this were 
similar ; in fact the reason why they were affected so 
differently cannot be told. The difference here pre- 
sented by two individuals may be observed in the 
same person, when considered at different epochs and 
periods of life. He will resist the excess of masturba- 
tion and coition to a greater degree at some times 
than at others, although the circumstances on which 
these differences depend are not known. There are 
then unknown circumstances which have an effect 
on the consequences arising from onanism. These re- 
marks are highly important and ought to be well under- 
stood ; and it is clear that there is no possible secu- 
rity for the onanist : in vain does he look for encour- 
agement by comparing himself to others, or by re- 
marking of a comrade " if he had been as healthy as I 
am, his health would still be good, he would not have 
died :" or by saying " why should I fear what I have 
indulged in so long with impunity." This mode of rea- 
soning is out of the question when the truth of the pre- 
ceding remark is admitted, and it is then impossible for 



45 

a person to deceive himself ; and the reason that so 
many abuse themselves is because they think them- 
selves stronger than others.' 

With these introductory remarks and quotations I 
will now proceed to a brief view of the actual conse- 
quences ; not, of course, mentioning all, for that would 
be tedious and unnecessary, but the most constant and 
important of the diseases induced by masturbation. 

Irritation of the Bladder. Perhaps the very first lo- 
cal announcement of disease is an unnaturally frequent 
desire to make water, and more or less inability to hold 
it back ; it is unattended with pain, and may even not 
be noticed ; but it is really a premonitory symptom of 
further mischief, and is present in almost every case. I 
will transcribe an instance or two from my Case-book. 

Mr. (5989). Never contracted any disease, but 

practiced masturbation ; find he has slight incipient 
stricture ; his most prominent complaint is frequent 
urinating, which began eighteen months ago ; it calls 
him suddenly in the day time, and obliges him to get 
up two or three times at night ; otherwise his health 

seems to be good. Mr. of Albany (5997). Has 

had no disease but practised masturbation somewhat 
when a boy. His principal trouble now is in having 
to get up three or four times every night to urinate — 



46 

the water is rather too light, and clear ; has some 
weakness and pain in the back. I might add an in- 
definite number of instances. This slight irritability 
may suddenly assume the form of actual spasm, ther 
either incontinence or retention of urine ensues : as ar 
instance of the latter — a young man called at my office 
one morning in great distress, pale and covered with a 
cold sweat, bent forward and holding the lower 
part of his belly, and said he had not passed a drop of 
water for nearly thirty hours ; he had gone to bed 
hoping relief would come, but had passed a sleepless 
night, and by this time was in perfect agony. I found 
he had never had any venereal . disease, nor, indeed, 
ever run the risk, but had been in the habit of self-abuse. 
A catheter passed with perfect freedom into the blad- 
der and his water was drawn off ; he had laid it all 
to taking cold. 

Irritation of the Urinary Canal is also an early and 
constant effect, generally for a long time so slight as 
not to attract attention, though its ultimate conse- 
quences are very important — being the first link in 
the chain of disorders that end in impotence. It re- 
mains for a long time as it were latent; the urine may 
not even feel a little warm as it passes through; but 
the irritation sooner or later passes, either through 
sympathy or continuity of tissue, or both, to the 



47 

testicles, exciting increased secretion of semen and 
often some degree of varicocele; to the prostrate 
gland, causing irritability and increased secretion 
there; and to the seminal vesicles behind the bladder, 
affecting them in the same way. It is also the cause of 
Stricture when present; of ulceration of the seminal 
ducts, and of spermatorrhoea — all of them constituting 
important diseases which have to be described. Also, 
through the bladder and internal urinary ducts, or by 
sympathy, affecting the kidneys, even fatally. The 
proper examination of the urinary canal detects this 
state of irritation in the form of tenderness in its whole 
length, or later, concentrated at the inner end in the 
form of circumscribed engorgement or incipient 
stricture. This is a most important part of the subject, 
and will be more fully treated of in chapter V., on the 
Nature of the Disease, and in chapter VI., on 
Stricture and Seminal Gleet. 

Morbid Erections of the penis; an irritable state of 
the part, through which erections are excited on the 
slightest occasions and to the great annoyance and 
mortification of the person, are the result partly of the 
irritability of the seminal organs before mentioned, 
and partly of the state of the brain presently to be 
described. They are soon attended or immediately 
followed by the discharge in undue quantity, of a 



48 

transparent mucus which again soon exerts 
debilitating effect upon the erection, lessening its 
duration and diminishing its firmness, and terminat- 
ing, if it goes on, in true seminal gleet. Mr. , 

case 5998. Never had any venereal disease. Has, for 
the last eight years, been troubled with erections too 
easily produced, ' all the time while asleep/ too 
sensitive to the touch; and the erections, even without 
emission, followed by increased nervousness, etc.; 
his eyes are affected, pain in back of head, some 
weakness in the small of the back, occasionally very 
frequent urinating, the urine generally light, and 
having alight-colored sediment; bowels regular. 

Disease of the Testicle. Those who abuse themselves 
seldom escape without some injury to the testicles. 
The first effect is a slight irritation with too rapid 
secretion of semen and a little increase in size and 
sensitiveness to the touch. This, as the cause con- 
tinues, gradually passes on to subacute inflammation, 
and still later to depraved secretion of semen, and 
actual disease of the tissue of the gland. In other in- 
stances the testicles are attacked by pains of a rheu- 
matic kind which run along the chord into the groin; 
or they begin to hang low and grow flabby, and finally 
waste away, and this is always attended with vari- 
cocele; or some of the other diseases of the testicle 
are developed. 



49 

' A young man entered St. George's Hospital 
(London) affected with pains in the left testicle; 
it was soft, flabby, and one third smaller than the 
other one. The patient had never received a blow 
on it nor- had gonorrhoea; but he admitted that for 
five years he had been addicted to onanism, and that 
a day seldom passed without his indulgence. Before 
wasting away, the testicle had been the seat of a 
swelling, which had been preceded by severe pains. 
These pains had continued to be felt, and the disease 
was attended with such a degree of moral depression 
that the countenance of the patient assumed a sombre 
and melancholy character/ 

Mr. (6285). Practised masturbation at the 

age of nineteen and continued it three years; is 

now 27 years of age; never had any venereal 

disease. For the last five or six years the testicles 

have hung very low, and felt painful and heavy; 

urine sometimes comes freely, sometimes with a 

straining; weakness in his back; considerable low- 

ness of spirits and loss of memory, especially 

of names; has a moderate stricture. Dropsy of 

the testicle, or hydrocele, is sometimes the form 

assumed. Quite recently I drew off the water in a 

case of this kind — nearly six ounces; the patient, a 

young man, had practised masturbation for some 

years, very badly for a length of time, but had over- 
5 



50 

come it. The disease appeared in the left testicle very 
suddenly and without any other cause whatever. 

Spermatorrhcea or Seminal Emissions have already 
been mentioned among the symptoms, and will be 
further explained in chapters V. and VI. It should 
be understood that they do not, under all circum- 
stances, necessarily imply disease — the means of de- 
termining this important point will be found in the 
chapter on the ' Treatment.' And when morbid their 
effect is not altogether dependant upon the frequency 
of the emissions, as the following abstract of cases 
shows. 

Mr. ^6165). Never had any venereal disease ; 

practised masturbation from the age of twelve to 
sixteen, then abandoned it; has a nocturnal seminal 
emission about once a month; complains of weakness 
in the loins ; is nervous, very excitable and irritable, 
so much troubled with depression of spirits as fre- 
quently to long for death; urine pale and throws down 
a white sediment; has slight dyspepsia but good ap- 
petite. Mr. (6052). Never cohabited; has 

abandoned the habit of masturbation; has nocturnal 
emissions two or three times a week, but sometimes 
two weeks apart; urinates too often, and it dribbles 
away at the last; penis shrunk; is troubled with 
nervousness; memory constantly fails him; has a sore- 



51 

ness in the throat; bowels regular, appetite good, and 
sleeps well. 

Mr. (584*7). Practised self-abuse while young, 

but has never committed sexual excess since, nor con- 
tracted any disease. Married 12 years ago and has a 
healthy family. Still, seminal emissions occur quite 
frequently, very irregularly as to times, and always 
accompanied by dreams; sometimes even in the day. 
Complains of weakness in the back; considerable effect 
on his mind and memory; weakness of the eyes; 
dribbling after passing water, with occasional pain 
and smarting; dwindling of penis; hanging of the 
testicles; some dyspeptic complaints and costiveness. 
Light complexion, full habit, general health pretty 
good. 

The special symptoms and manner of detecting the 
more obscure and dangerous forms of emission, viz., 
Seminal Gleet or Diurnal emissions, will be found in 
chapter VI. 

Diminution of pleasure in the sexual act. This is a 
point of more importance than would at first appear. 
I speak of it here in relation to abuse ; in chapter VIII. 
it is further mentioned in relation to excess. It comes 
on insidiously and for a long time is not noticed, or is 
accounted for in various ways, its significance of 



52 

actual disease not being suspected. It, however, in- 
dicates the commencement of two serious conditions — 
deterioration of the semen, and relaxation of the 
seminal ducts, and marks the advance toward another 
stage. Many patients have complained to me of this 
symptom, as also married women. 

Capt. (6264). Has practised masturbation, 

never contracted any gonorrhoea. Is dyspeptic, but 
bowels are regular ; there is some dribbling after 
micturition ; erections and sexual desires are unaf- 
fected ; has a seminal nocturnal emission about every 
two weeks. But the greatest complaint is a too pre- 
cipitate discharge in the sexual act and absence, more 
or less, of the natural enjoyment. 

Transitory or incomplete erections. In the early 
period the erection is perfect, but if connection with a 
female is essayed an emission takes place before 
the act ought to be half completed, or at the very 
commencement ; or, as the disease continues, the 
erection is firm but soon subsides again before the 
act, probably with a copious discharge of the pecu- 
liar mucus before mentioned ; or, finally, mere in- 
crease in size without firmness, is all that it reaches. 
This depends upon the same condition as the fore- 
going, and in one degree or other I find it complained 
of by a great many patients. 



53 

Stricture, first in the preliminary state of simple 
engorgement, then of distinct incipient stricture, is 
found to exist in almost every case. It sometimes, 
however, becomes permanent or organic stricture, 
and some of the worst and most obstinate cases of 
this disease I have ever met with have had this origin, 
the patients never having contracted any venereal 
disease nor had sexual intercourse at all. 

Mr (5814). Contracted the habit of masturba- 
tion at 13 years old and continued it till lately ; 
has never had any involuntary seminal emission ; his 
nerves, as he expresses it, are gone, there is no 
energy about him ; his mind is depressed and memory 
much weakened ; has a gleety discharge ; the lips 
of the urinary passage are glued together in the 
morning ; has been very constipated for the last 
several years. I find he has a stricture at 5| inches 
which has reduced the canal to about half its 
original capacity at that point, with much tenderness 
between it and the neck of the bladder. 

Mr. (6001). Practised masturbation a good 

deal from the age of 16 till a year ago ; nocturnal 
emissions are rare, but since the last eight months 
he has suffered from general debility, is costive and 
has the piles. I find a moderate dilatable stricture at 
5 and another at 6 inches. I have had very many such 



54 

cases having different degrees of stricture. This 
subject is of the greatest importance from the fact 
that it may become the prominent, and, in some 
instances, actually the only remaining symptom or 
consequence — all the other effects of the vice having 
passed away ; and in either case the cure of the 
patient will hinge upon this knowledge. Stricture 
therefore, with seminal gleet, being of such paramount 
importance, are made the subjects of a separate 
chapter. 

Impotence is the natural, and, ultimately more or 
less constant and necessary result of any one, or 
varying combinations, of the disorders hitherto de- 
scribed. I have met with many cases of partial, and 
some of absolute impotence, in the course of my 

practice ; the following is a curious one. Mr. , had 

been for several years in a regiment stationed at 
an extreme frontier fort, and had never touched a 
woman, but had practised masturbation during the 
whole time. He afterwards came to this city and 
married, when he found himself to be impotent, and 
a few weeks afterward consulted me. I found he had 
a very bad stricture, in which the whole disease 
seemed to concentrate itself, for he had otherwise 
but slight symptoms ; the absence of erections he 
had attributed solely to his reformation and good 



55 

resolutions. The cure of the stricture was tedious, 
and not, as was to be expected, followed by the return 
of virility — perfectly well in every other respect he 
still remained absolutely without erections. The only 
thing I could discover was that, contrary to my 
directions, he had not even moderated his tobacco- 
chewing, which I now insisted upon being given up 
altogether ; in a few days afterward he enjoyed the 
full return of his powers. 

Disordered Mind. As the relation of instances oc- 
curring in my own practice — and I have met with 
some of a most distressing kind, but which have 
perfectly recovered — might give pain, I will illustrate 
this with a case or two from others. The temper, 
inclinations and whole character is sometimes much 
changed. 

1 , aged 27, called for advice in the summer 



of 1834, having had ill health for some eighteen 
months or two years. He complained of confusion 
of the head and pain in the eyes, indigestion, pal- 
pitation of the heart, and difficulty of respiration. 
His sleep was disturbed, his temper irritable, and he 
felt dissatisfied with himself, and greatly inclined to 
gloom and melancholy. He complained of listlessness 
and indisposition to any bodily efforts, and of inability 
to fix his mind upon any subject, or give his attention 



56 

to any business. His hands were cold, countenance 
pale and dejected, pulse frequent, and his whole 
system in a state of great irritation. It was ascer- 
tained that for two or three years he had been in 
the daily habit of masturbation. 7 

1 Mr. of high intellectual powers and general 

talents, and of a lively disposition, studying medicine, 
became suddenly changed ; he shunned society, espe- 
cially that of females, was morose, taciturn, and 
frequently shed tears ; he often sat for hours in a kind 
of abstraction, and on being aroused could give no 
explanation of his thoughts or feelings ; he constantly 
expressed a conviction that he should never succeed 
in his profession — that he was ruined here and here- 
after. A year before he had contracted a gonorrhoea 
which left his bladder irritable ; digestion was much 
disordered ; the best medical advice proved unavail- 
ing. After six months he spent some time by the 
sea-side with a friend who discovering the true cause 
of his troubles kept with and otherwise closely 
watched him. By his return home he had almost 
recovered his health and spirits ; but, by a twelve- 
month, he had relapsed and was worse than before ; 
he would often remain in bed nearly all day, no 
threats nor entreaties could induce him to get up ; 
his intellectual faculties were prostrated, and a vacant 



5? 

stare took the place of his naturally lively expression/ 

Dr. Ray, an eminent authority, says, ' It is a fact well 
established in this country at least, that masturbation 
or self-pollution is a prolific cause of mental derange- 
ment in young subjects. It deserves our special atten- 
tion for the reason, that although the intellect finally 
suffers deeply and rapidly, yet, in its initiating stage, 
the moral and affective powers may be seriously per- 
verted, while the conduct and conversation of the indi- 
vidual may be outwardly marked by his usual pro- 
priety. Long before any intellectual aberration is 
observed and while the patient is merely moody and 
reserved, his mind may be tortured by fears and suspi- 
cions that mar his peace and sometimes lead him to 
acts of violence.' And instances of this very kind have 
come under my own observation, in some of which the 
acts, had they occurred amongst strangers or persons 
severely inclined, might have been treated as actual 
offences or crimes ; and it was for this reason that I 
declined relating them, as likely, if read and recog- 
nized by the parties, uselessly to wound their feelings. 

Different authors record cases in which various 
crimes, even to homicide, have been committed under 
the influence of hallucinations growing out of this dis- 
ordered state of mind. And these cases are not so rare 
as may be supposed ; but a month since, a gentlemen 
6 



58 

with whom I had been professionally acquainted some 
years ago, called on me ; he told me he had determined 
on destroying himself, and felt sure that I would give 
him some friendly advice in the matter ; also that he 
felt it a duty to kill his two sons, whom he dearly 
loved, because they were doomed to grow up like him 
(really a case of severe hypochondria from unrecog- 
nised seminal gleet). I succeeded in persuading him, 
against his firm conviction of its uselessness, to allow 
me to prescribe for him, he assenting with a mixture 
of childlike confidence and contemptuous indifference. 
He is already a different man ; and, I believe, has no 
further thoughts of violence. And, doubtless, children 
are often chastised — senselessly flogged or otherwise 
maltreated for acts which, but for ignorance or stupid- 
ity on the part of their elders and superiors, would 
rather excite commiseration, and appeals to the phy- 
sician for a remedy. 

Under the continued action of the causes that have 
led to such state of mind, actual Insanity is produced. 
This, though a sadly frequent and terrible consequence 
of abuse, \& not so much met with in private practice 
as by those who have charge of public institutions. 
Many authors might be cited, I will however only quote 
from the work of Sir W. C. Ellis. He says, 'But there 
is a vice, the secret and unsuspected indulgence of 






59 

which seems in addition to its weakening* the general 
powers, to have a specific and direct tendency, in many 
conditions at least, to operate on the brain and nervous 
system. Would that I could take its melancholy vic- 
tims with me in my daily rounds, and could point out 
to them the awful consequences, which they do but 
little suspect to be the result of its indulgence.* I 
could show them those, gifted by nature with high 
talents, and fitted to be an ornament and a benefit to 
society, sunk into such a state of moral and physical 
degradation as wrings the heart to witness.' And, in 
another place, he explains the mental symptoms and 
ultimate insanity as due to positive debility of the 
brain, the direct result of deficient supply of blood ; 
which, as I have before briefly explained, is also pro- 
foundly deteriorated by masturbation. 

Disordered Nervous System. The symptoms growing 
out of this condition are endless ; a case will explain 
it better than any description. A young man, twenty- 
two years of age, gives the following account of his 
own experience. 

1 At sixteen years of age I learned to masturbate ; 
this habit I continued for several years with a kind of 
fury. My health soon became affected, my strength 
failed and also my digestion. I soon perceived ., heat 
and constant pain in my stomach ; my tluoat was in- 



60 

flamed and my feelings were extremely bad. The 
advice which I received and the alteration in my health, 
caused me to renounce this habit. My situation soon 
improved and I gained daily, but at the same time my 
desires returned and I shortly relapsed into my former 
errors. The same cause produced the same effects 
and I again abandoned onanism, promising never to 
indulge again. For two years I kept my word : un- 
happily this time however my health was not restored 
as at first, and I continually experienced all the suffer- 
ings which I have described. Besides, I have become 
so sensitive that everything incommodes me ; the least 
change in the weather and particularly a storm causes 
me a great deal of suffering. Farther I cannot say 
what temperature is. best for me, for I do not experi- 
ence much difference whether it be cold or warm. I 
have but little desire for females, and although indulg- 
ing at times after long intervals, yet I have always 
suffered for several days afterward, in the same man- 
ner as after masturbation. I feel constant pains of a 
lacerating character in the limbs ; sometimes also, 
but more rarely pains in the back ; often also, I have 
pains in the stomach and colic. My digestion although 
better than before, is far from being good ; I can take 
but a few articles of food, and the smallest portion of 
wine, spirit, or coffee produces great distress.' ' This 
was the young man's statement : he was deeply affected 



61 

by the slightest cause ; his appearance was sad, he 
was tired of himself and was constantly tormented by 
thoughts of his former excesses/ 

Dyspepsia is present, more or less, in every case; but 
for a long time it continues in the form' of sympathetic 
dyspepsia; hence its rapid disappearance under the 
successful treatment of its cause. 

Disease of the brain. The very earliest effects of 
self-abuse are shown here; at first a slight functional 
disturbance or irritation, but which, through the most 
intimate of all sympathies, immediately reacts upon 
the sexual organs. The first sign of this evil effect 
upon the brain is the frequent recurrence of lascivious 
thoughts, slight giddiness, tendency to headache, list- 
lessness ; it is seated in the lower and back part of the 
head — in that portion of the brain that has direct con- 
trol over the sexual functions, and indirectly over the 
rest of the organ. Now here, just as in other organs, 
slight functional disturbance, if continued, passes by 
degrees into actual irritation, with such increasing 
activity that the intellect gradually loses its proper 
controling power. And this is the reason why it is so 
exceedingly difficult at first, and sometimes ultimately ' 
impossible for the unfortunate victim, by the power 
of his own volition, to break off the habit. Happily, 
however, it is now in the power of art so to modify 



62 

or control these conditions as to render it compara- 
tively, and often positively, easy. This condition is 
the starting-point of the more formidable affections 
of the brain that masturbation is the cause of. 

A symptom entirely referrible to this morbid state 
of the brain, is sleeplessness — slight during the early 
period of the habit, but eventually becoming complete 
in some instances. Sound, refreshing sleep results 
only from perfect health and sufficient exercise; but, 
if the brain be the seat of irritation, however slight, 
it is necessarily the opposite of sound and refreshing 
— it is disturbed by dreams, often of a disagreeable or 
horrifying kind; is restless, broken or feverish. Such 
persons therefore awake unrefreshed, unsatisfied with 
their sleep, disinclined to arise; ready to retire again 
early both from want of sleep and because it is the 
more natural and convenient time for yielding to their 
depraved inclinations. 

The Eyes always suffer in some degree from self- 
abuse. During or immediately after the act they are 
red, swollen or watery; this of course passes off 
again, but it soon begins to leave a permanent effect; 
they lose their natural brilliancy; the direct gaze of 
another becomes disagreeable and is avoided by look- 
ing away or toward the ground. A slight ophthalmia 
sets in, which gives rise to redness of the edges of the 



63 

lids, the collection of matter in the morning, and some 
bloodshot appearance, or watery look; and the darker 
ring round them appears, or shows more plainly. They 
are easily fatigued and grow irritable or sore from 
reading or other use in the evening, and which is often 
followed by headache. 

The sight becomes gradually weaker, and irritable 
twitching or tremors of the lids is not uncommon, and 
sometimes confirmed squinting. In some cases a 
bright light of any kind is intolerable. In some a 
peculiar dizziness with dimness of sight, or even 
temporary blindness, follows each act of abuse ; and 
such symptoms, or increasing weakness of vision, 
must, in accordance with the opinion of every autho- 
rity, be considered as threatening blindness, either 
sudden or gradual. Even amaurosis, however, gene- 
rally admits of cure along with the cure of masturba- 
tion or seminal emissions. 

As it has been truly observed, * There exists in all 
these patients something peculiar in the expression of 
the eyes, in the position, in the voice, and in the 
general appearance; something of timidity and bash- 
fulness which I am unable to express, but which is in- 
stantly recognised by the experienced, although per- 
haps it is incapable of explanation. 7 



64 

Piles is a frequent consequence of this vice, and is 
produced through the medium of the same morbid 
influence as causes varicocele of the testicle. 

Disease of the Heart is directly induced by sexual 
abuse and excesses; the circulating system is always 
deeply agitated by these acts, and when palpitations 
and short breathing are too often repeated, and 
especially when excited in an unnatural way, per- 
manent derangement and ultimate disease cannot be 
wondered at. Though apparently severe it is still 
often for a long time only functional, and then, if the 
true cause be concealed by the patient and it be 
treated as actual disease, its aggravation is the 
mildest consequence; it however yields rapidly to 
abandonment of the vice and the cure of the true 
disease. 

Mr. (5984), aged 22; never had any venereal 

disease but practised masturbation; has nocturnal 
seminal emissions, sometimes several in a week; suffers 
from depression of spirits, is melancholy, and cannot 
attend to his business; has pains in the chest and 
between the shoulders; shortness of breath, and is 
much alarmed about palpitations, which are especially 
severe in going up stairs; expectorates; is costive; is 
apprehensive of consumption. 



65 

Mr. (6180). Began masturbation at the age 

of thirteen, nine years ago; has never had any 
venereal disease. The principal symptom he com- 
plains of is palpitation of the heart, from which he has 
suffered for the last four years without relief; has also 
pain in his back, considerable depression of spirits and 
forbodings of death; is very nervous; has seminal 
nocturnal emissions, formerly twice a week but 
latterly only every two or three weeks ; bowels costive, 
appetite good. 

' Mr. Contracted the practice of masturbation 

at school, but shortly afterward took a fever and was 
removed ; this was followed by pain in the chest, 
sense of suffocation and palpitations. At the age of 
19 he broke himself of his habits and involuntary 
seminal emissions set in. The following winter the 
palpitations and difficulty of breathing increased and 
he was treated for heart-disease, and by the summer 
was a little better. The following winter they grew 
worse again and he was treated in the same way with 
aggravation of the breathing, palpitations and pollu- 
tions, and additional emaciation and dropsy in his legs. 
At the age of 28 he came to Montpellier (France). A 
minute examination assured me there was no organic 
disease, and treatment was directed to the effects 
of masturbation with the most satisfactory results.' 



Rheumatism and Neuralgia are sometimes most 
evidently caused by abuse and excesses. Quite lately 
a patient told me that his rheumatism set in soon after 
he had contracted the habit of self-abuse, and when 
relieved returned again and again, and he was ' quite 
sure that caused it.' 'Individuals who have braved 
the usual causes of rheumatism with impunity/ says 
Deslandes, t not unfrequently become vulnerable to 
these causes after venereal excesses. M. Villeneuve 
relates the case of a stone-cutter, who had long been 
exposed to changes of weather without inconvenience, 
and who was violently attacked with rheumatism after 
unusual venereal excesses. He also mentions the case 
of a groom, who had long slept in a damp and narrow 
stable without suffering, but who was attacked with 
rheumatism the winter after his marriage. Sancerotte 
has seen a similar case ; it was that of a man who 
had constantly braved the changes of weather, and 
who was affected with rheumatism after indulging 
in women and wine. The same author has estab- 
lished, in the memoir where this fact was reported, that 
muscular rheumatism is only a variety of neuralgia. 
Among the proofs that he gives of it, he states that 
many authors have placed venereal excesses among 
the causes of neuralgias and those of rheumatism. 

Consumption. This is perhaps the most frequent 



67 

of all the diseases developed under the depressing 
influence of sexual abuse, and it is the oftenest fatal. 
When family or other predisposition exists this vice 
rarely fails to bring it into activity. The number of 
persons who thus fall a prey to consumption cannot 
be told ; their friends, their physician, and often even 
themselves not suspecting its true cause ; and who 
might or would have outgrown the tendency to this 
disease but for the blight of masturbation at the very 
period in which the constitution was in need of all its 
vigor and resources. 

Disease in the lungs, just as others that have been 
described, begins in mere functional disturbance ; 
shortness of breath, or panting and flushing in the 
face only, at first attends each act of abuse ; after 
a while the same symptoms are noticed in going up 
stairs or up hill ; very slight exercise is enough to put 
the person out of breath ; or the chest feels oppressed, 
and which he relieves by a sigh. 

Dr. Lallemand describes the cause of this so well 
that I cannot do better than give his words. ' The 
muscles which perform the function of respiration, 
participating in the general debility of the system, 
contract less energetically and less frequently than 
natural ; the respirations, therefore, become shorter 
and less frequent : hence the necessary changes in 



68 

the blood are not properly performed, and there is 
defective equilibrium between the respiration and 
circulation, with habitual sense of uneasiness and 
oppression in the chest. Hence arises the necessity 
for deep voluntary inspirations or sighs, to re-estab- 
lish this equilibrium occasionally, and to fill the 
extreme pulmonary vesicles with air. The patients 
are apt to call these sighs involuntary, because they 
are forced to make them without knowing why. On 
the other hand, again, being deeply afflicted at their 
condition, and incessantly occupied in seeking its 
cause, the patients sometimes suspend the motions 
of the thorax, and this habit increases their habitual 
oppression. Lastly, it is necessary to take into ac- 
count the influence of the pulmonic nervous system. 
It is not probable that the pulmonary nerves should - 
escape the generally debilitating influence of invol- 
untary discharges. Dr. Deslandes indeed thinks that 
the nervous asthma may be produced by masturbation 
and venereal excesses, inasmuch as these attacks only 
seem to him to be aggravations of their ordinary symp- 
toms. This opinion is strongly supported by what 
I have # seen in many patients.' 

Wichman, in his dissertation on pollutions, says, 
1 Experience has taught me that in many patients 
who have been considered as affected with true 



69 

phthisis the disease must be referred to this cause 
alone. The symptoms of diurnal pollution are not 
very dissimilar to those of the first period of pulmo- 
nary consumption, at this purely spasmodic period, 
which I should be tempted to term insidious, if I 
considered merely the difficulty and uncertainty of the 
diagnosis at this period. The cough which then at- 
tends some patients, also, leads physicians to dread 
phthisis ; or, rather, consumption, arising from diurnal 
pollution, assumes so much the characters and form 
of this disease, that one is disposed to treat it by 
the ordinary method, to the great disparagement of 
the patient, whose state requires opposite remedies. 
Farther ; it is clear, that the disease of which we 
speak must infallibly terminate in phthisis, if it be not 
soon arrested.' 

And in my own practice I have seen the same re- 
marks also applicable to cases closely simulating con- 
sumption, but which depended on Stricture of the urin- 
ary canal, and to such a degree that the patients have 
been given up ; yet have perfectly recovered with the 
cure of the stricture. 

Epilepsy is a form of disease often assumed when 
the irritation of the brain passes into actual or con- 
firmed disease; it is difficult or impossible to arrive at 
the exact truth, but the probability is that the great 






10 



majority of cases have masturbation for the exciting, 
and often for the predisposing cause as well. There is 
sometimes so much congestion about the face as to 
look something like apoplexy ; but if blood is taken the 
result may be fatal, and the case would certainly be 
aggravated, for it is a disease of exhaustion, and the 
weaker the patient becomes the more frequent are the 
fits. The pulse alone is sufficient to decide the case ; 
in apoplexy it is full, hard, resisting ; but in epilepsy 
though quick it is irregular, and often so feeble that 
compression stops it altogether, and to feel it the fin- 
ger must be held very lightly over it. 

Hypochondria, often connected with some kind of hal- 
lucination, or monomania, is seldom absent in confirmed 
habits of masturbation or long-continued seminal emis- 
sions, and most especially diurnal or internal emis- 
sions. Whenever such symptoms occur in early life 
self-abuse should be suspected as the chief or only 
cause. A case or two will best describe it. 

' Mr. . Aged 25, contracted the habit of mastur- 
bation at school, at 12 years of age; but it was not till 
the age of 19, whilst studying law at Paris, that a 
change in his character became apparent. He then 
began to feel a disgust for everything and a constant 
sense of ennui ; to see only the dark side of everything. 
Thoughts of suicide then haunted him during a year ; 



H 

>ut afterwards gave place to other ideas. He fancied 
imself to be a subject of ridicule ; that the expression 
if his countenance, or his manners, excited an insult- 
ing gaiety in others ; and, at length, that every one 
wished to insult him. Sometimes he would feel en- 
raged, but more frequently depressed in spirits, and 
would break into involuntary tears. If any one spat, or 
blew their nose, coughed, laughed, or put their hands 
or handkerchief before their face in his presence, he ex- 
perienced the most painful sensations. He could look 
at no one nor fix his eyes on any object, but, wrapt in 
his own thoughts, became indifferent to all about him. 
He experienced heaviness and oppression in the head ; 
though fatigued by slight exertion was constantly in 
motion ; dyspeptic ; constipated ; all erections and 
venereal desires had vanished ; his urine was muddy, 
passed too frequently, and soon putrefied ; the testi- 
cles and urinary canal were very sensitive.' 

1 Mr. . 21 years of age; well made, robust, his face 

and appearance bespeaking health, had complained of 
headache for several years, and often showed derange- 
ment of his ideas. He had been treated for chronic dis- 
ease of the brain by distinguished practitioners, both in 
England and Germany. His feeble and husky voice, 
and timid and embarrassed manners led me to suspect 
masturbation ; but, examining a rupture that had come 



i 



12 

without apparent cause I discovered evident marks of 
semen upon his shirt, when he told me that he often 
had discharges of glairy matter at night ; further ex- 
amination assured me that he passed semen at stool 
and with his urine. I was convinced that the sup- 
posed brain disease depended upon spermatorrhoea- — 
which the result confirmed. 

This is the previous history of the case ; the cause 
of these discharges was obscure. At the age of 16 
nocturnal pollutions occasionally appeared without 
dreams ; he was ignorant of sexual intercourse or mas- 
turbation ; was passionately fond of study ; at 17 
had frequent headaches, disordered vision, obtuseness 
in his ideas, lbss of memory, and fatigue in studying ; 
and, several times, long fits of unconsciousness with- 
out apparent cause. At 18 he was placed in a school 
at Paris, and suffered from violent headaches. Soon 
afterward he was placed in a commercial house in Lon- 
don, but after two months the headaches, giddiness, 
noise in the ears and disordered vision increased ; a 
residence in the country produced some improvement 
which was lost on returning to his occupation, and he 
experienced such giddiness and weakness in his legs 
that he dared not go out alone. At length his intellect 
became so deranged that he doubted everything he 
heard, or saw, or did, and even his own existence ; and 



73 

by degrees his digestion became deranged. His phy- 
sician sent him to travel in Belgium and Germany. 
During this long journey he became more and more 
disordered ; everything seemed illusory and fantas- 
tic ; he fancied himself in a painful dream. He im- 
ag'ned too that every one was ridiculing him, and con- 
spiring against him ; and especially three Englishmen 
who followed the same route, and who he thought were 
plotting against him ; and one of the gentlemen espe- 
cially he was a hundred times tempted to throw into 
the Ehine as he passed him on board the % steamboat. 
These hallucinations remained on the patient's memory 
after his recovery, like a kind of nightmare. 

Disease of the Spine, or rather, of the spinal marrow, 
which is really a continuation of the brain itself and at 
least as important in the animal economy, is among 
the consequences of self-abuse. In its incipient stage 
this shows itself early in every case in weakness and 
pain in the back and loins, and stiffness ; and in some 
cases by a pain felt by pressure on the lower part of 
the spine. As it progresses the step becomes un- 
steady or trembling, pains are felt in the loins or wan- 
dering like rheumatism, the legs become more emaci- 
ated and feebler in proportion than the rest of the body, 
and it naturally leads to or ends in Palsy, Contractions 
of the limbs, or Dorsal Consumption. I saw a distress- 
ing case of this kind last year. 
7 



u 

In concluding this formidable list of possible and 
probable consequences of sexual abuse there is one 
point of great encouragement that must not be forgotten 
— which is, that though most of them are known to be 
of a fatal or more or less incurable nature, yet, when 
they are caused by masturbation they are exceedingly 
curable if the truth is confessed to the physician and 
the case is radically treated. 

I ought also to add that every case I have quoted here 
was perfectly cured. 

I might have illustrated the subjects with ' letters/ 
but that it has always been my rule to destroy all my 
patients' communications. 

THE CONSEQUENCES IN THE FEMALB. 

Many of the consequences, or actual diseases, are 
the same in both sexes ; some, however, are modified 
in the female by her nervous system, and some are 
quite peculiar on account of her special organization. 

Irritation. The first appearance of disease is local, 
and consists in an irritation established in the internal 
parts by the unnatural and frequent excitement ap- 
plied, always probably at first, by means of the fingers; 
and which soon assumes the form of subacute inflam-l 
mation. Upon examination these parts will be found I 



a brighter red and somewhat swollen or more devel- 
oped than is proper ; sometimes distinctly inflamed ; 
and the part especially chosen for titillation is often en- 
larged ; in some instances it has been found enor- 
mously so. The irritation and heat thus produced in 
the external parts keeps the thoughts directed there 
and acts as a continual provocative of abuse ; it also 
leads to the same effect upon the brain as has been de- 
scribed in the case of the male with similar results. 

This external inflammation is the simplest form of 
disease and belongs to the earliest stage; but sooner or 
later it passes inward by means of the lining skin, ex- 
tends to all the internal sexual organs, and becomes a 
subject of great importance ; and when the vice has 
been contracted much before puberty it has been known 
to arrest the development of some of them almost al- 
together. This progress inwards really marks the ad- 
vent of a second stage, with more numerous and 
marked symptoms, and- corresponds with the subacute 
inflammation of the seminal organs in the male, being, 
like that, the first link in an important and ulti- 
mately most formidable chain of diseases. In the same 
way it reaches the female urinary canal, giving rise to 
the frequent desire to pass water, and in some cases to 
actual disease of the bladder ; or, through the urinary 
ducts, to disease of the kidney ; but its more frequent 



76 

direction, and where it is productive of the worst con- 
sequences, is toward the internal generative organs, 
causing the diseases of those parts presently to be 
mentioned. 

Voluptuous Dreams. Growing partly out of the 
local irritation and partly out of the functional dis- 
turbance of the brain thereby induced, as before de- 
scribed in the case of the male, are lascivious thoughts 
which haunt the mind during the day, and volup- 
tuous dreams at night ; and though the female can- 
not exactly have seminal emissions, they are at- 
tended with such a flow of mucus as takes place in an 
actual emb'race. And this discharge morbidly produced 
has, in kind though not in degree, the same debilita- 
ting and sad effects as has the nocturnal seminal dis- 
charge in the male. 

Leucorrhoea, called also fluor albus, female weak- 
ness, the whites, is an early and frequent symp- 
tom of local irritation ; indeed it is believed by some 
writers that whenever the whites exists anteriorly to 
the age of puberty it has been brought on by self- 
abuse, except where other definite and tangible cause 
exists. This complaint is unfortunately too familiar to 
every one ; it is a certain consequence of masturba- 
bation, and, if uncured, is almost sure to lead to bar- 
renness. 



11 

Deranged Menstruation. When the habit has been 
contracted before puberty the monthly discharges are 
delayed, or they are scanty, pale, are accomplished 
with distress and difficulty, and are attended with nerv- 
ous complaints. And that full development of the fe- 
male form which is just as intimately connected with 
and dependant upon the healthy influence of the 
womb and its internal appendages in the female as 
the corresponding change in the male is dependant 
upon the integrity of the seminal organs, is more or 
less completely arrested ; the bosom is often but a 
meagre apology for the exquisitely developed beauty 
that nature would have brought forth ; the hips do not 
attain their swelling proportions and admirable out- 
line ; and so of the voice, the eye, the manners, the 
whole being — the charms and graces that so illu- 
mine youth are dimmed or destroyed. 

If the habit has been commenced after this period 
is passed and its changes established its destructive in- 
fluence will be longer resisted, but will still inevitably 
follow ; the menstrual discharges will be deranged, 
suppressed, accompanied with pains, or brought on too 
often or immoderately according to the constitution or 
mode of life ; and if the vice be continued, or the dis- 
ease marking the third stage has been initiated, body 
and soul will be robbed again of all their charms. 



78 

Hysteria. In the great majority of cases, this affec- 
tion is the direct consequence of functional disturb- 
ance of the womb and derangement of the courses ; and 
this, though it may have various causes, is much more 
frequently the result of masturbation than seems 
generally to be supposed. 

Diseases of the Womb. The irritation described as 
commencing externally and extending inwardly, is the 
cause of all the subsequent diseases of the womb and 
its appendages, and of the more serious character of 
the symptoms belonging to the brain and nervous 
system by reflex sympathy. The first sign of this 
irritation passing inwardly is the frequent desire to 
urinate, as before mentioned. Then, as it gradually 
invades the whole length of the female passage leu- 
corrhoea in its simplest form appears; then the neck of 
the womb is attacked; then the appendages of the 
womb, with more or less affection of the organ itself. 

Disease of the neck of the womb is the most 
important of all, both on account of its greater fre- 
quency, the symptoms it gives rise to, and its prone- 
ness to degenerate into some form of cancerous dis- 
ease ; and it is, fortunately, the most curable of all, 
since the means of making a satisfactory examination 
of and proper application to it, have been perfected. 
It also indicates the stage of the disease of masturba- 



19 



tion The first disease resulting from irritation or 
subacute inflammation of this part, is engorgement, 
which progressively reaches the condition oiezconation, 
then of ulceration; and the whites become of a very 
bad kind, constant, and more weakening. These wdl 
be more particularly described in connexion with the 
Nature of the disease in the female, in chapter V. In 
unfavorable constitutions, or when continually irritated 
by venery or by abuse, there is the greatest danger of 
their assuming the character of cancer. 

This subacute inflammation may remain stationary 
at the neck of the womb for a long time, or it may pass 
on to the body of the organ, generally in the form of 
chronic inflammation of the womb. However it more 
frequently but slightly affects or passes by the womb 
on its way to its more important appendages, where 
its effects are the same as in the testicles and seminal 
vesicles of the male-it first produces super-excite- 
ment with slight enlargement and tenderness, and 
increased secretion; and which, through the same 
intimate sympathy, adds to the excitement of its par- 
ticular part of the brain with consequent increase of 
lascivious thoughts and voluptuous dreams; and also 
directly excites the rest of the sexual organs But 
after a longer or shorter period, according to the na- 
tural powers of the constitution and the sexual organ- 



80 

isation of the individual, it is succeeded by relaxation 
and ultimate wasting away, or by permanent disease, 
sometimes of a malignant character. Falling of the 
womb is a frequent consequence of chronic inflamma- 
tion seated there; and masturbation brings its own 
debilitating influences to add to its frequency. 

Barrenness. After what has been stated it will be 
evident that long continued or excessive abuse must 
destroy fecundity; and this is in accordance with the 
views of all writers on this subject. But, nearly in 
connexion with this, there is sometimes another most 
distressing effect — it robs the sexual embrace of its 
2^leasure, or, actually produces aversion to the act; and 
I am occasionally consulted, especially by letter, upon 
this very point. 

Now, this may be due to one or more of several 
things — it may be owing to great relaxation of the 
passage and its entrance, to which, in most cases, the 
depressing and deadening effect of long-standing* 
leucorrhoea is added; or to relaxation and threatened 
wasting of the internal appendages of the womb, 
whereby their secretion is imperfectly formed, or de- 
praved, and then the natural local desire and vitality 
is lost, as with relaxation and depraved seminal secre- 
tion in the male; or again, it may be owing to deaden- 
ing of the peculiar sensibility of those external parts 



81 

in which pleasure is supposed to reside, from the rude, 
unnatural and too frequent excitement to which they 
have long been subjected, so that they cannot respond 
to the delicate and exquisite natural stimulus; or, the 
female may have nurtured false and immoderate ex- 
pectations of enjoyment founded upon what her 
solitary efforts had produced, but which through the 
morbid incapacity of her own parts meets with utter 
disappointment, and is sometimes followed by un- 
governable disgust. 

Some women are indifferent unless excited by the 
opposite sex, and may be so to a great degree; but 
where there is no other actual disease to account for 
it I do not think that total absence of enjoyment, or 
actual disgust of or aversion to the sexual embrace, 
ever exists but as a consequence of self-abuse. And 
in these cases, where the bodily and mental conditions 
remain sufficiently attractive to lead, on both sides, to 
marriage — which fact evinces an ignorance of such an 
unhappy state of things and the existence of natural 
affections and desires, I think that restoration to hap- 
piness will always prove possible. 

And further, for the encouragement of those who 

may be personally interested, I ought to add here that 

a rapid and perfect recovery from the evil effects of 

self-abuse is more easy and certain than in the male, 
8 



82 

To my own statement of this truth I will subjoin the 
words of that most celebrated and practical of modern 
authorities, Dr. Lallemand. 

He says, ' Whenever we succeed in entirely putting 
a stop to the habits of abuse in children, we may make 
sure of obtaining their return to health, and that very 
quickly. This I have remarked in all the cases of 
children that have come under my care. I do not 
mean to infer that the disorder done to nutrition dur- 
ing the progress of developement is easily repaired, 
but that the acute symptoms rapidly disappear, and 
that all the functions are quickly re-established. If 
the effects produced are active and serious they cease 
very rapidly, as soon as the cause is removed, and re- 
turn to health becomes certain.' 

' What I have just said respecting children, applies 
equally to females.' 

1 Why in these two classes of cases (children and 
females), is the cure certain and the return to health 
rapid, as soon as the vice has been mastered ? It is 
that the cause of the weakness immediately ceases to 
act on the economy. Why is it that so many men 
continue to waste away after they have entirely left 
off their habits of abuse ? It is because diurnal emis- 
sions have commenced, which are even more debilitat- 
ing than the abuses which gave rise to them' — and 
these do not occur in women and children. 



CHAPER III. 

THE CAUSES. 

The Causes of Masturbation and Abuse. — The variety of causes, direct 
and indirect, not generally eyen suspected — Causes which have come 
to the knowledge of the author, and of other observers — Causes 
acting in childhood, in youth, in the adult, of either sex — Remarks 
upon circumcision — Important suggestion. 

The number of influences that are brought to bear, 
some upon one and some upon another individual, and 
that are capable of becoming, directly or indirectly, 
the cause of a habit which constitutes l a disease that 
degrades man, poisons the happiness of his best days, 
and ravages society/ is not as much as suspected 
by people generally ; yet it is a subject the importance 
of which cannot be exaggerated — and above all to 
parents — and would, if once seen in its true light, 
excite the most intense interest. 

In the course of my experience, which has been 
extensive, I have become acquainted with many ; 
it has happened to other observers to see different 
ones ; I therefore propose, in this chapter, principally 



84 

to bring together the observations and experience of 
several of the most eminent, as the more perfect 
and satisfactory way of treating the subject. And 
the consideration of its causes will prove also to be, 
at the same time, that of its prevention, ' Of such an 
occurrence it is especially of importance to prevent 
the evil, inasmuch as, when once established, it is 
occasionally without remedy, and generally leaves its 
traces during the rest of the patient's life. There 
is, perhaps, no single question of more importance 
to the happiness of families, and to the welfare of 
society. 

The influences bearing upon the individual before 
puberty are the most numerous and dangerous, and 
of which it is the duty of every parent, or guardian 
of children, to be aware. 

With regard to Nurses and Servants the following 
remarks of Dr. Lallemand are full of interest and 
suggestion. ' The most anxious parents believe that 
there is no occasion to watch over the actions of their 
children with regard to their genital organs, pre- 
viously to the epoch of puberty ; and few, even of 
our own profession, are led to suspect bad habits 
before that period. This is a fatal error, against 
which it is necessary to be on our guard : numerous 
causes may give rise to abuses, at a much earlier 



85 

period — infancy being hardly exempt from them. I 
saw one unfortunate child, which, while still at the 
breast, nearly fell a victim to the stupidity of its 
nurse. She had remarked, that handling the genital 
organs appeased its cries, and induced sleep more 
easily than any other means, and she repeated these 
manoeuvres, without noticing that the sleep was pre- 
ceded by spasmodic movements. These increased, 
and took on a convulsive character, and the child 
was losing flesh rapidly, and becoming daily more 
irritable, when I was consulted. At first I attributed 
the disorder to worms, teething, &c, but my attention 
being attracted by certain signs, I examined the 
genital organs, and found the penis erect. I was soon 
told all, for the nurse had no idea she was doing 
wrong. It was necessary to dismiss her, for her 
presence alone sufficed to recall to the child's memory 
sensations which had already become a habit. Time 
and strict watching were required before these early 
impressions were entirely effaced. Dr. Deslandes re- 
lates two similar cases, and Professor Halle, in his 
lectures on hygiene, used to mention many such ; 
Chaussier, too, has told me of several that came under 
his notice ; and both these observers believed such 
cases to be less rare than they are usually considered. 
These manoeuvres quiet the children very readily, and 
nurses always endeavor to obtain quiet at any sacri- 



86 

fice ; they have no idea of the consequences of their 
conduct. At a later period, children are exposed to 
the same dangers, on the part of the servants having 
charge of them ; and in these cases, it is not of 
ignorance that the attendants are to be accused. 
Many patients have consulted me, who owed their 
disorders to this cause/ 

Dr. Copland says, ' Several writers whose works 
I have perused have stated that they have known 
instances when this vice had commenced in females 
as early as three or four years of age ; and cases of 
it have come before me when this age was hardly 
passed. At this early age, the practice has generally 
been acquired from the girls to whom the care of 
children has been Committed. In a case of nymphoma- 
nia, in a patient to whom I was called in consultation, 
and who was sixteen years of age, the intelligent 
mother, the wife of an eminent physician in India, 
stated that the disease originated in manustupration 
acquired from a native Indian nurse, when the child 
was only four years old.' 

And Dr. Deslandes also says, ' Most frequently, 
however, the habit of onanism arises from direct pro- 
vocation, from instruction. Sometimes this provocation 
can be attributed only to imprudence. Thus nurses 
sometimes titillate the genital organs in children to 



87 

stop their cries. We have already stated, from Biett, 
the instance of a young girl who had thus contracted 
this bad habit, and who was cured by amputation 
of the part. Sometimes, however, servants teach 
their master's children from wilfulness. One should 
be particularly careful of female servants, as it is 
to them that young children are generally entrusted. 
And in another part of his work, speaking of the 
frequency of fluor albus in servant girls, ' We have 
seen several, who were so weakened by the whites, 
and the irritation of the sexual parts, that they have 
been obliged to quit their situations, being unable 
to do their duty. We will even say, that the most 
sincere of these girls have given us such information 
as to their habits, that we suspect most of this class 
of onanism. 

Precocity in Children increases the dangers to be 
feared from any untoward influence. Dr. Lallemand 
has seen much of this, and remarks that ' In some chil- 
dren there is a kind of precocity of sexual instinct, 
which leads to very serious results. In these, it often 
happens that the sexual instinct arises long before pu- 
berty ; such children manifest an instinctive attraction 
toward the female sex, which they show by constantly 
spying after their nurses, chambermaids, etc. These 
freaks of children are usually laughed at ; but if they 



were regarded with more attention, it would become 
evident that the sexual impulse has been already awak- 
ened. Rousseau, in his Confessions, has well described 
the influence which early sexual impulse exercised on 
his whole life, and I have received numerous confi- 
dences of the same nature, which, however, it would 
be of no service to relate here. One case, however, is 
so remarkable, that an abstract of it may be instruc- 
tive. , the son of a distinguished physician, be- 
tween five and six years of age, was one day in sum- 
mer in the room of a dressmaker who lived in his 
family ; this girl, thinking that she might safely put 
herself* at her ease before such a child, threw herself 

on her bed, almost without clothing. The little 

had followed all her motions, and regarded her figure 
with a greedy eye. He approached her on the bed, as 
if to sleep, but he soon became so bold in his behaviour, 
that after having laughed at him for some time, the 
girl was obliged to put him out of the room. This 
girPs simple imprudence produced such an impression 
on the child, that when he consulted me, forty years 
afterwards, he had not forgotten a single circumstance 
connected with it.' 

1 The continual occupation of his mind by lascivious 
ideas did not produce any immediate effect, but about 
the age of eight, the most insignificant occurrence 



89 

served to turn his recollections to his destruction. 
Having mounted one day on one of the movable frames 
which are used for brushing coats, he slid down the 
stem which supports the transverse bar, and the fric- 
tion occasioned caused him to experience an agreeable 
sensation in his genital organs. He hastened to re- 
mount, and to slide down in the same manner, until the 
repetition of these frictions produced effects which he 
had been far from anticipating. This discovery, added 
to the ideas constantly before him, gave rise to the 
most extraordinary abuses, and, after a time, to exces- 
sive masturbation. ? 

1 One patient informed me, that about the period of 
puberty, while hanging one day by his arm, he experi- 
enced an energetic erection accompanied witn' plea- 
sure, and that by his efforts to raise his body, he caused 
an abundant seminal emission. This was the first. 
The next day he repeated the same motions, and no- 
ticed the same phenomena, and from that time he knew 
no other pleasure. From the principles which had 
been instilled into him, he would have thought himself 
degraded by connection with a female, or by the least 
mutual contact with his genital organs ; but his con- 
science was quiet with regard to these practices, be- 
cause they had not been forbidden him. He continued, 
therefore, to hang by the hands, from the furniture, 



90 

doors, etc., without being suspected by any one, and 
fell, by degrees, into a state of debility and wasting 
equal to those caused by the most unbridled masturba- 
tion. After a time, from weakness, the patient lost the 
power of hanging, and his voluntary emissions ceased ; 
but they were soon replaced by nocturnal emissions, 
which were very difficult of cure.' 

' The following are a few passages from a letter I 
have recently received. " Being of an ardent tempera- 
ment, I abused myself, from the age of eight years, by 
practising masturbation, or rather, by still more hurtful 
manoeuvres. By compressing the penis between my 
legs, or against the seat on which I was sitting, I pro- 
duced excitement, which was commonly followed by 
the discharge of a few drops of a viscid and transparent 
fluid. This practice I repeated several times a day, up 
to the age of sixteen, when I ceased entirely, having 
been frightened by the discharge of nearly pure blood, 
which occurred several times. From this time I only 
sought natural enjoyments, but I found it impossible 
to obtain a complete erection. This state was attribu- 1 
ted to weakness, and was combatted by tonics, stimu- 
lants, and even irritants of all kinds, which have done J 
me much injury. I used, also, cold bathing and cold 
lotions." 

' I have seen an officer of high rank who had fallen I 



91 

into the same condition, from the practice of similar 
manoeuvres. He experienced his first sensation against 
the leg of a table, at the early age of ten years, and 
continued for several years to employ the same means/ 

1 From these facts an important scientific conclusion 
may be deduced, viz., that in many children the genital 
instinct shows itself with much energy many years be- 
fore the age of puberty.' 

1 A no less important practical precaution presents 
itself, viz., that the age of puberty should not be waited 
for, in order to surround children with prudent circum- 
spection, and to prevent their curiosity from being 
gratified/ 

Dr. Deslandes also makes some valuable remarks 
and suggestions upon this subject. \ Sometimes, too, 
a knowledge of this vice comes by accident. Hence 
children at an early age should be taught habits of 
modesty ; all handling of the genital organs should be 
prohibited. Children should not be allowed to keep 
their hands in their pockets. Neither should they be 
left long alone ; the necessity of observing, which is 
so vivid at their age, is exercised on themselves, when 
they find nothing else to interest them, and they some- 
times make dangerous observations. It is in bed par- 
ticularly that this evil is most liable to happen ; hence 



92 

they should be taken from their beds as soon as they 
awake, and the hour of rest should not long precede 
that of sleep.' 

1 Unfortunately, the smallness of dwelling houses in 
cities, and other necessities, particularly that of watch- 
ing their offspring, oblige parents to keep their child- 
ren near them, and their curiosity being always on the 
alert, often leads them to unfortunate discoveries. ' 

1 If accidental observations in the most moral fami- 
lies may be attended with the results just mentioned, 
what must be the consequence of constant depraved 
manners ; their empire is so great at this age when 
the mind is inexperienced, and is always ready to adopt 
the impressions of the moment/ And it is from such 
sources that most of our servant girls generally come. 

How much beauty and truth there is in the words of 
the celebrated J. J. Rousseau ; he says, on this very 
subject, ' / do not see but one mode of preserving in 
children their innocence ; which is, that all those around 
should respect and love it.' 

Irritation and eruptions about the genitals may exert a 
powerfully exciting influence, more especially in the 
female. The natural secretions of the parts if allowed 
to remain sometimes gives rise to superficial inflamma- 
tion or excoriation, or eruptions, and wfiich in its turn 



93 

is capable of exciting internal irritation ; and this 
is much more likely to happen in hot weather. The ir- 
ritation that at one time leads to frequent urinating at 
another may excite the sexual propensities, sometimes 
to the extent of ungovernable local desire or actual ve- 
nereal furor, called, in the male satyriasis and in the 
female nymphomania. 

Dr. Deslandes says ' It is not uncommon to see symp- 
toms of inflammation appear at the same time or suc- 
cessively in different mucous membranes. The mem- 
brane lining the genital organs is not more exempt 
from this, than others. The heat which patients feel 
in the genital parts, the redness and swelling which 
are there developed, are generally the only symptoms 
which then become known to the physician. But 
there is another, the excitement of the venereal sense, 
which often escapes him ; either because the patients 
are too young to explain it, or because a natural feel- 
ing prompts them to coneal it. Hence this symptom is 
frequently unnoticed, except in rare cases, where it ex- 
ists to a great degree, and presents characters analo- 
gous to those of satyriasis and nymphomania.' And 
again ' This irritation may also act in another manner. 
The itching it occasions may cause the hands to be 
carried to the genital organs ; unknown sensations are 
produced, and masturbation is accidentally discov- 
ered. 7 m 



94 

Now all this is easily avoided or remedied by simple 
washing or bathing ; children should be washed daily by 
their mother, or a near relative, in plenty of cold water, 
till they are old enough to do it themselves; and then it 
should be continued, under a slight supervision, till they 
take full charge of themselves. This is in many ways 
a powerful safeguard against all causes originating in 
the individual. There are several other causes, gener- 
ally but little suspected, that are capable of giving 
rise to this vice through local excitement. 

Incontinence of urine l wetting the bed' is closely 
allied to sexual irritability ; as Dr. Lallemand observes 
1 The spermatic apparatus does not attain its full de- 
velopment until the age of puberty, but the urinary 
organs perform their functions from the period of birth. 
The connection that exists between the two systems is 
so intimate, that the observations drawn from the one 
first in action foreshadow the affections to which the 
other may become liable.' And "in another place he 
says, 'Accumulation of urine in the bladder during the 
night, is a powerful cause of excitement of the genital 
organs — another proof of the intimate connection be- 
tween the genital and urinary systems. This influence 
is well known to all who suffer from nocturnal emis- 
sions ; nearly all such, warned by their own observa- 
tions, take care to empty the bladder before going to 



95 

bed, and every time they wake. Some even get into 
the habit of waking at stated periods for this purpose, 
and abstain from taking fluids in the evening. 

These things should always be attended to and 
children carefully got into the habit of not drinking 
much late in the day, and always making their water 
the last thing before getting into bed. The fear of pun- 
ishment seriously aggravates the case, for the efforts to 
resist, and retain the urine, more and more provoke 
and maintain erections, and also bring the hands to 
the part. Dr. Deslandes writes, ' Many children have 
been led to onanism by their efforts to resist the wish 
to urinate. The pressure exercised on the penis by 
pressing the thighs firmly against each other, has ex- 
cited sensations which they have attempted to repro- 
duce. We mention this cause of onanism as being 
much more common than is generally supposed.' 

Whipping of children, though undoubtedly necessary 
and salutary under certain circumstances, which in a 
well managed family are really rare, may be fraught 
with danger, and has called forth remonstrances from 
thoughtful and learned men. Dr. Deslandes says on 
this subject, ' Irritation of the skin, particularly in the 
neighborhood of the sexual parts, may act on/them as 
we have seen, and produce venereal desires.' ' Casti- 
gation, and also the denuding of the body, which is ne- 



96 

cessary, often have an effect on children, indicated by 
the erection of the penis. Young persons sometimes 
desire this punishment. The sensations caused by it 
have been so strong, as to be followed by an imme- 
diate emission. How many children have become 
addicted to onanism, in consequence of this imprudent 
punishment ! how often has the fatal habit of onanism 
been encouraged by it ! These consequences have 
been pointed out by many authors.' 

1 Pic de la Mirandole, Rhodoginus, &c, have re- 
lated instances of it. The following is from Serrurier. 
" One of my school-fellows," says he, " found an inde- 
scribable pleasure in being whipped : he took every 
occasion to provoke the master, who never pardoned 
an offender, but had him scourged, by individuals to 
whom this duty was committed. This same school- 
fellow declared that he was sorry when the punish- 
ment was ended, because then the pollution was not 
complete. What has been the consequence of this hor- 
rid discovery. The unhappy person became addicted 
to onanism. Eeduced to the lowest stage of consump- 
tion, in consequence of the habitual loss of semen, his 
death presents us' a picture of depravity, and an in- 
stance of the danger to which one is exposed by this 
fatal passion." ? 

'Castigation is much more to be dreaded when 



91 

practised by one of an opposite sex from that of 
the patient. Rousseau, describing the effect produced 
on him by being punished by Mademoiselle Larn- 
bercier, says — he was then eight years old, " For a 
long time she confined herself to threats, and the 
threat of punishment seemed very dreadful to me ; 
but after it was performed, I found it less terrible 
than I expected ; so much so, that it required all my 
natural sweetness to prevent me from seeking a return 
of the punishment ; for I found in the pain, and even 
in the shame, a mixture of sensuality which had left 
rather a desire, than a fear to be punished by the 
same hand. The same punishment from the hand of 
her brother would doubtless have been less agree- 
able." Rousseau having exposed himself a second time 
to punishment, it was seen by a certain sign, that this 
chastisement did not produce the desired effect : he 
therefore escaped afterward. Thanks to his tempera- 
ment, Rousseau did not contract, at that dangerous 
period, a habit which would have extinguished, at 
their source, those admirable faculties which were 
afterwards developed.' 

1 The rod, too, should be excluded from families, and 
physicians should explain to families the double 
danger of a loss of modesty, and of exciting the 
senses.' 
9 



98 

' Certain articles of clothing may excite the skin, 
cause an itching, and thus produce effects similar to 
those of flagellation. It is wise to avoid thje use 
of flannels next the skin, particularly in young 
patients, and around the hips. ? 

The child's habits in bed should be watched. The 
custom some have of going to kiss their children after 
they have got into bed, or of looking at them before 
they retire themselves, is a most excellent one — for 
not only is such loving watchfulness fully appreciated 
by the child, but it gives the opportunity, without 
seeming to do so, of observing its habits in bed ; 
of seeing that he or she lies on one side or the other, 
and not always on the same side of the body 
and especially not upon the belly ; that the head 
is not covered up ; that the hands and arms are out 
of bed, or at least not about the genitals. 

Dr. Lallemand observes, ' I have already spoken of 
the danger of allowing children to sleep on the 
abdomen ; I should add, that many of my patients 
thus contracted habits which ruined their health. 
Independantly of the inconveniences to respiration, 
digestion, &c, which arise in this position, erections 
are favored. The least friction awakens new sensa- 
tions, and once on the track, progress is soon made. 
Sometimes recollections have caused the choice of 



99 

this position ; of this I have related a remarkable 
example ; at other times, scruples early instilled by 
a sage foresight, but which the violence of the impulse 
has at length succeeded in eluding, have induced it. 
Thus, I have been told respecting one of my patients, 
that he would suffer death rather than defile himself 
by touching the genital organs, yet, for five or six 
years, he seldom passed a night without working 
his own destruction while lying on his abdomen. It 
is not necessary for me to enter into a description 
of the other means by which patients have sought 
to satisfy their genital impulses, without trans- 
gressing the religious and moral principles which 
have been taught them in infancy. Suffice it to say, 
that if they have succeeded in satisfying their 
consciences, they have not succeeded in preserving' 
their health/ 

Lying on the back is also bad because the spine 
and base of the head become heated, and, through 
the sympathy before mentioned this is conveyed to 
the genital organs. A soft bed, especially of feathers 
or wool, adds to this bad effect ; the bed should be 
hard and cool ; a straw or horse hair mattrass is best ; 
and the covering should be no thicker or heavier 
than really is necessary ; from the bolster, or pillow, 
feathers should also be rigidly excluded. 



100 

' Lying in bed after being awake/ Dr. Copland 
observes, ' is another occasion of no small importance 
— of much greater than is generally attached to it. 
Although this and several others of the foregoing 
causes may not have first occasioned this vice, still 
they remarkably favor a frequent recurrence to it, 
and often render the morbid influence to it too strong 
for the self-control of the person who has fallen into 
the habit/ 

It is a custom to send children to bed early — too 
early ; when they cannot at once go to sleep for 
neither of the two requisites, fatigue or sleepiness, 
is present ; it is an unreasonable custom, and of dan- 
gerous tendencies. And still more so is the unthink- 
ing custom, so much in vogue with some, of sending 
children to bed early for punishment, or shutting them 
up alone, or in their bedroom, for a length of time ; 
and ten. times worse when preceded or accompanied 
by a whipping ; and these things are often done. I 
knew, when a boy, in London, an otherwise well- 
educated and intelligent gentleman, who used to lock 
his boys up in a room in solitary confinement from a 
day to a week at a time — his regular mode of pun- 
ishment. 

The Diet of children, of the greatest importance 
in this, as well as in other points of view, seems to be 



101 

entirely disregarded by very many, even parents ; 
it should be more of milk and farinaceous food and 
less of meat than it commonly is, the least candy and 
cake possible, or things highly flavored with aroma- 
tics, as pepperment and the like, which are all direct 
stimulants, and very much so in a special way as is 
well known to confectioners themselves. Tea and 
coffee, if allowed at all, should be very weak and 
cool ; of course spirituous beverages of any kind are 
wrong ; also the use of much spices ; indeed, con- 
diments are not needed at all, and when a child cannot 
eat his meals without them the indication really is — 
a dose of physic, and it ought to be given. 

Schools. In my own practice I have found that mas- 
turbation has generally been taught in one way or 
other; many patients tell me they have learnt it from 
other boys and generally at school, but sometimes 
from older people or servants, especially female ser- 
vants, and in some instances from persons who -would 
be least suspected of such infamy, and, occasionally, 
that they discovered it themselves. Dr. Deslandes 
seems to have observed the same; and Dr. Lallemand 
writes, ' If I may judge from my own observations, out 
of ten persons whose health has been deranged im- 
mediately or remotely from the effects of masturbation, 
nine first contracted the habit at school. All that I 



102 

have read on the subject has led me to conclude that 
this proportion is not exaggerated. A child brought 
up in the bosom of his family is, it is true, surrounded 
by many causes sufficient to arouse his curiosity and 
excite his imagination; but such causes act acci- 
dentally, and in an isolated manner; they only pro- 
duce a serious effect on a few ardent imaginations; a 
thousand circumstances may remove the attention 
from them. At school it is admitted that such causes 
do not exist, but there are others, less numerous and 
less varied, but which operate in a much more active 
and continuous manner ; the effects of these are direct 
and almost inevitable. The child finds, on his first 
arrival, a focus of contagion, which soon spreads itself 
around him ; the vice is established endemically, and 
is transmitted from the old pupils to those newly 
arriving. If a few privileged individuals escape being 
initiated,. they are only such as do not experience any 
gratification. But their time will come at a later 
period; when the passions make themselves felt, the 
same circumstances will be presented to the mind, 
under a less disgusting aspect. I shall not enter into 
details on this subject; but from all that has come to 
my knowledge, from various and direct sources of in- 
formation, I do not hesitate to affirm, that nowhere are 
obscene books circulated more freely and boldly, than 
in educational establishments; that the origin of the 



103 

vice is not solely in the scholars, but also in the 
ushers and servants; that the abuses are not always 
confined to masturbation; and that they are not always 
propagated by example or persuasion, but are some- 
times enforced by threats or violence.' And Dr. H. J. 
McDougal says, ' I regret to say that his statements 
apply with nearly the whole of their force to the 
schools of England/ 

Dr. Copland says, ' Boarding-schools and other semi- 
naries or institutions, where a number of children or 
young persons are brought together, and especially 
where several sleep in the same apartment, or more 
than one in the same bed, are the places where this 
vice is most frequently acquired, by both sexes ; but it 
is not infrequently practised by those who have never 
entered these places, it being either suggested by the 
local irritation and physical excitement often present 
during early puberty, or soon after this epoch, or ac- 
quired from tutors and governesses.' 

There are also other causes, still of course of the 
same general nature, but taking a different form, that 
act more at the period of, or after puberty. 

Sitting too long is condemned by all who have 
written on such subjects. Dr. Deslandes says, ' The 
sitting posture, when long continued, excites the 



104 

genital organs. Simon thinks so because this attitude, 
by the pain and obstruction which it causes to the 
circulation, brings the blood to the lower parts of the 
trunk, and keeps it there; hence it exposes the young 
man to excitement of the genital organs, and to en- 
gorgements of the spermatic chord ; even piles appear 
in those who ride and sit much. This author concludes 
by condemning the custom, in schools, of keeping the 
students sitting the greater part of the day. He thinks 
that the number of hours spent in school should be 
less, and that the students should study as many of 
their lessons as possible in the erect posture. He re- 
commends, also, that the seats should be so con- 
structed as not to generate much heat. 7 

And Dr. Lallemand remarks that ' A too sedentary 
life is injurious at all ages, especially in childhood, 
when there exists such constant desire for exercise and 
change. Gymnastics, therefore, should on this ac- 
count alone occupy an important position in the sys- 
tem of education; but they must be viewed under a 
much more serious aspect. Xothing can prevent the 
genital organs, at the time of their development, from 
re-acting on the economy and giving rise to new sen- 
sations and ideas. It is impossible to prevent the at- 
tention from being attracted by the impressions caused 
by these organs; impossible to restrain 'the imagina- 



105 

tion and to prevent it from frequently dwelling on such 
impressions. The slightest circumstance may, in such 
a case, lead to a fatal discovery, even if the informa- 
tion be not transmitted directly, and enforced by ex- 
ample. How are such discoveries to be prevented; or 
rather, how are their results to be guarded against? 
Study gives us no aid here; indeed the continually 
sitting necessarily heats the organs already too ex- 
cited. The eyes may be fixed on the book, the ears 
may appear to listen to the master, but who can guard 
against the wandering of the imagination ? At night 
it is still worse; no surveillance can prevent this. 
There exists only one means capable of counteracting 
it, and that is muscular exercise carried so far as to in- 
duce fatigue. This alone is able to deaden the suscep- 
tibility of the newly acting organs which excite the 
economy; exercise alone, by requiring matter for the 
repair of the muscular waste it causes, withdraws a 
stimulus from the genital organs, and induces sound 
and refreshing sleep.' 

Moral influence — bad books. l Notions of love may/ 
writes Dr. Deslandes, 'when acquired too soon, excite 
in the soul a sensation which is first vague, then more 
precise, and which only requires an opportunity to be- 
come a fatal passion. Thus the reading of romances, 
and books which always interest the soul in love 
10 



106 

scenes which are painted in bright colors, ought to be 
strictly forbidden to young people. The venereal sense 
becomes excited sooner than it ought to be, and 
desires demand to be satisfied before the body has at- 
tained its strength, and consequently before legiti- 
mate pleasures are practicable or allowable.' 

And Dr. Lallemand says ' I have seen a multitude of 
cases of this nature. From these I conclude, that in 
certain very excitable individuals, reading such works, 
the sight of voluptuous images, lascivious conversa- 
tion, in a word, all things that can excite or keep up 
irritation in the spermatic organs are capable of pro- 
ducing the same effects as actual abuse, even when the 
will is sufficiently powerful to prevent the thoughts 
from leading to the acts. On the other hand, an abun- 
dant secretion of semen with importunate erections, 
irritation of the urinary canal and prostate gland, 
always results under such circumstances ; and these 
favor the occurrence of nocturnal and diurnal emissions 
as serious, and perhaps more dificult of cure than those 
produced by masturbation, because it is impossible to 
act directly on the memory or the imagination.' 

' It is not sufficient then to prevent all material ac- 
tion on the genital organs ; it is necessary also to pre- 
vent all erotic excitement of the senses and all concen- 
tration of the ideas on lascivious objects. Fortune's 



lot 

favors are so distributed that numbers live in absolute 
indolence without being blamed by the world, because 
they demand nothing of any one. This inaction pro- 
duces results, the only remedy for which that I am 
aware of, is daily fatigue of the body by various kinds 
of exercise.' 

Solitude should be discouraged in young people 
under any and all circumstances as most dangerous in 
its tendencies. The custom some have of shutting 
children up for punishment, sometimes by the day or 
two together — and I have known it carried to the length 
of a week — and still worse if preceded by a whipping, 
is most reprehensible. The ignorance that exists on 
this subject is almost universal; the very best-meaning 
and affectionate parents often do that in the training 
of their children, the bare idea of which, if understood 
in all its bearings, would appal them. Again, boys 
and girls who are very studious and naturally seek 
retirement, should not have a too separate or distinct 
chamber assigned to them, and most especially those 
who have artistic tastes — who delight in drawing or 
painting, are always more impressionable, of a volup- 
tuous or imaginative mould, and their ' studio' though 
suitable and quiet, should, as much as possible, be 
occupied by some one else, or at least occasionally en- 
tered or passed through for some reason or other. 



108 

1 Celibacy, in adults/ Dr. Deslandes says i is with 
some few exceptions the only cause of onanism. This 
practice, and others still more revolting, are common 
among monastic orders, as the consequence and pun- 
ishment of vows made contrary to the laws of nature. 
Polygamy, the quasi celibacy to which the females of 
many countries submit, also causes great derange- 
ments in the system. A kind of consumption has been 
described to which the Turkish women are subject, and 
which can be traced to no other cause.' 

Phymosis predisposes to self-abuse by the local irri- 
tation of which it is always more or less the cause. I 
have operated upon numerous cases of natural phymo- 
sis (inability to draw the foreskin backward from over 
the head) where no venereal disorder had ever been 
contracted; but where the irritation and other incon- 
veniences occasioned by it alone impelled the persons 
to seek a remedy. Most authors recommend complete 
circumcision, but I have found a mode of operating 
quite efficaciously by which so much incision is avoided 
and the foreskin spared with but very little alteration 
in its natural appearance — so little that, in more than 
one instance where the patient has applied to me long 
afterward on account of disease there, I have asked 
whether it had not been performed. Yet, doubtless, 
complete circumcision is always proper if preferred, 
and, in some instances, more desirable; it is an opera- 



109 

tion very quickly performed and unattended with any 
danger. I shall speak of it more fully in chapter VII. 
on the treatment. 

The following remarks made by Dr. Copland upon 
this same point I would endorse to the very letter; I 
think we have been far from wise in ignoring, because 
no longer enforced as religious observances, many of 
the rules and obligations of the great Hebrew Law- 
giver; certainly we have gained no good, but much 
evil, thereby; and I would say, that, while it would be 
highly proper in all cases, every parent who is con- 
scious that their male offspring may inherit a tendency 
to this fearful vice ought to have this rite performed 
during infancy. 

' It should not be overlooked that physical conditions 
and local irritations are often the causes of many of 
our most uncontrollable desires and passions ; and that 
professional inquiries ought to be directed to the state 
of those organs which not only are influenced by these 
desires, but which instinctively excite the desires them- 
selves, independently of reason and volition. There 
can be no doubt, as I have above stated, that the oc- 
currence of this vice is remarkably favored by the phy- 
sical condition of the male genitals, especially as re- 
gards the neglect of circumcision. I am convinced 
that the abrogation of this rite among Christians has 
been injurious to them, in religious, in moral, in physi- 



110 

cal, and in sanitary and constitutional points of view; 
that circumcision is a most salutary rite, as respects 
not only the individual, but also the female whom he 
marries, and his offspring/ 

Phymosis is that state of the foreskin in which its 
free edge is so narrow or tight that it cannot be drawn 
backward so as to uncover the head — hence acrid 
accumulations, irritation, and at last disease. There 
is another malformation exactly the contrary of this, 
exuberant foreskin, which, from its unnatural bulk and 
length, is productive of similar consequences ; this 
variety requires circumcision, or its entire removal, 
which is followed by the best results. There is yet 
another natural malformation which tends, though in a 
rather different way, to the same ultimate evils, but 
which I have never found mentioned by any author; it 
consists in a preternatural smallness of the external 
orifice of the urinary canal; the urine, coming along 
the passage, suddenly meets this constricted opening 
against which the column of water butts or strikes 
every time, giving rise to irritation which is soon 
reflected to the inner extremity of the canal, and then 
to the internal organs. I have, in many instances, had 
to remedy this little deformity, which requires a very 
slight operation. 

The simple statement of the causes, is at the same 
time that of the prevention, of masturbation. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SIGNS. 

The Signs of Masturbation or Abuse. — When suspicion ought to be excited — 
The presumptive signs — The positive signs. 

It has been said that until after the age of puberty 
every boy and girl ought to be suspected of self-abuse, 
because it is actually practiced by many and may be 
by all, and because, though possible at any age it es- 
pecially belongs to the period of youth. Certainly, a 
constant vigilance engendered of this possibility, if not 
probability, ought to watch over all who have not ar- 
rived at the age of maturity. And it will not do to 
imagine that one's own child is too good, or innocent, 
or sensible — none is exempt from danger, coming as it 
does from within and from without, in such endless 
forms and varieties ; and, very often, the lovelier or 
the more noble the subject the greater the danger from 
these very qualities. Only in that watchfulness that 
grows out of a just appreciation of the danger lies safe- 
ty — whilst ignorance or neglect is fraught with danger 
and may lead to bitter and unavailing regrets. 



112 

It is not meant that every child will fall into this 
vice if not actually prevented ; nor that one exhibiting 
every healthy attribute, both of body and mind, is a 
subject for suspicion ; but only, that one of a thousand 
bad influences may occur to lead any one to it ; and 
that therefore every one ought to be the subject of a 
watchful care. 

The practical part of the matter is ; first — When ought 
suspicion to be excited ? — and then, What are the pre* 
sumptive — What the positive signs, of this habit ? 

There are various circumstances which may proper- 
ly give rise to suspicion, several of the more prominent 
of which might be mentioned. Thus, when a child or 
youth falls into a state of debility or growing emacia- 
tion ; is evidently ill, perhaps seriously, yet no one can 
give his complaint a name ; or has more or less cough 
and seems to be hastening to consumption ; when a 
thorough investigation of his system can detect no 
cause in any internal organ, nor in worms, the teeth, a 
too fast growth of the body ; and when the case is not 
benefited by anything that is done for it at home, nor 
even by medical treatment, nor by change of air ; or 
when the physical or nervous exhaustion is not the re- 
sult of improper or in sufficient food, grief, over work ; 
under any of these or like circumstances the patient 
ought be suspected of self-abuse; for, if this be the true 



113 

cause — and it probably is, his very life hangs upon that 
one thing. 

Again, defect in the proper mature development that 
ought to set in about the period of puberty, especially 
when this is connected with a weakness or delicacy of 
constitution not to be accounted for by hereditary 
transmission, previous or present severe disease, insuf- 
ficient food, over-work mental or physical, or other 
deleterious influence — in the male showing itself prin- 
cipally by backwardness or defect in the voice or 
growth of beard, boldness and manliness of character; 
in the female by retardation or irregularity of the 
monthly discharges, and want of the engaging and 
lovely attributes of budding womanhood — constitutes 
a legitimate ground for suspicion. When all this comes 
as it were like a blight, and unaccountably, it is from 
no other cause. 

Or, when a child or young person does not sleep ; 
gets a shuffling, unsteady or trembling gait ; stoops 
and grows round-shouldered ; is languid ; loses 
the gaiety and sprightliness of youth, and brilliancy of 
eyes and expression ; the natural relish for amusement, 
or readiness for exercise regardless of fatigue ; and no 
reason or cause is evident or can be discovered, it is 
right to suspect masturbation. 



114 

If the natural traits of character unaccountably 
change, or the affections become distorted or unnatu- 
ral ; the boy becomes irritable or peevish, or morose 
and taciturn ; or the girl unhappy, nervous, irritable, 
dissatisfied, and will not confide her troubles to mother 
or sister as formerly, and no reason can be assigned for 
such change ; or the intellect fails, lessons are not 
learnt as they formerly were, or are forgotten, the mind 
seeming to have lost its normal power, such is not a 
case for blind and ignorant punishment — no other suffi- 
cient cause existing, as sickness, overstrained mind 
and want of sufficient air and exercise, and so on, sus- 
picion of this fearful vice ought to be excited. 
• 

Epilepsy or falling fits in children or youths, and 
hysterics in girls, ought to give rise to such suspicion, 
and to the most careful investigation, till proved whe- 
ther this be the cause or not. 

Now, under any such circumstances it becomes of 
great interest to know what may be held to indicate 
the existence of this vice — what constitutes the signs 
that self-abuse is being practised. 

The Presumptive signs, those that tend rather to ■ 
strengthen suspicion, are the most numerous ; and gen- 
erally rather lead to the positive, to actual detection in 
the act, or to an avowal on the part of the individual. 



115 

But the discovery may not be easily made, for the in- 
genuity displayed in hiding the habit or any evidence 
of it is often astonishing ; even very young devotees 
know intuitively, if not that it is wrong at least that 
it is to be concealed. But if ingeniously and persist- 
ently watched none can long elude detection. Of course 
it is expedient not to let the suspicion be known at 
first. 

Watchfulness exercised over children is by all con- 
sidered as a powerful preventive means, for solitude is 
essential to the continuance or the very existence 
of the practice ; as has been well said l the opportuni- 
ties for onanism are all embraced under one term, iso- 
lation.' And it may be remembered that solitude is not 
natural to youth of any age or either sex ; the love of 
solitude can only exist as a morbid sentiment. There- 
fore we should be watchful of all such ; of those who 
remain long in the privy or water-closet ; who are fond 
of solitary walks — I have known of secluded spots in 
the country being found and resorted to for the very 
purpose of self-abuse, also of the garret being fre- 
quented for the same reason. ' Watch where the child 
goes. Have an eye to him who seeks solitude — who 
remains a long time alone, and who cannot give a good 
account of himself/ 

In connection with bed — it is a bad sign to find a 



116 

* child or young person closely covered up, with the 
hands always under the bed clothes and often about 
the genitals, and still more so if the penis is generally 
found to be in a state of erection ; though this latter 
will frequently be found the case in the morning in an 
innocent and healthy child if he be uncovered or the 
clothes be thrown off; but such a boy will be more likely 
to be found with his head and arms and chest uncov- 
ered, even in cold weather, the anxiety of the mother be- 
ing to keep him covered up. 

Biting the nails — keeping them bitten close, has been 
found to be an indication ; and in girls the existence 
of warts on the two first fingers, or soreness or slight 
ulceration about the roots of the nails. 

Want of color in the lips and gums ; loss of the bril- 
liancy of the eyes, with a very peculiar expression, and 
turning them to the ground instead of meeting the look 
of another, are very significant in either sex. 

Palpitations of the heart without disease there or 
general debility, easily produced and often excessive ; 
delay or irregularity of the monthly discharges, with 
fits of nervousness or of hysterics ; green-sickness, 
which may be the cause of any of these symptoms in 
girls, is often, probably in the majority of cases, itself 
produced by masturbation. 



Ill 

Of course, any one or two of these appearances alone, 
and unsupported by any other signs or symptoms, would 
possess little or no significance — except perhaps to ren- 
der the child an object of more care in this respect than 
it otherwise would have been; but, where the habit real- 
ly exists, they must lead to the discovery of something 
more ; and this leads to the discovery of what may be 
considered 

The Positive signs. These, of course, are not numer- 
ous ; and though, alone, perhaps, not always positive, 
become really or practically so when considered in 
connection with the signs or symptoms which lead to 
their discovery. 

The hands frequently found to be about or upon the 
genitals during sleep, when the bed clothes are gently 
removed, is a very bad sign. ' Have an eye to those 
young persons, whose hands, when in bed, or during 
sleep, are in the position described ; they are onanists, 
or will become so.' If the penis also be found in a state 
of erection or promptly becomes so on any slight touch, 
appearances are still worse. And the same is gener- 
ally true of those boys who always have their hands in 
their pockets — this should never be allowed from the 
first, and when there is a marked tendency to keep them 
there the boy's trowsers should be made without any 
pockets at all. 



118 

If, the boy being apparently asleep, the bed clothes 
are suddenly thrown off on any pretext, and he be 
found in a perspiration, his face flushed, the penis in 
a state of erection and the hands on or near it, no room 
for doubt can be left. If the breathing is quick or hur- 
ried, the pulse too fast, the body heated and bathed in 
perspiration which the weather and bed clothes 
would not occasion, and he is agitated and confused, 
or probably still feigns sleep, he is under full venereal 
excitement, and most likely a more or less confirmed 
offender. When it is observed that a child readily gets 
into bed, covers itself up closely and is at once — appa- 
rently, asleep, it would be well to come into the room 
quietly, at times, and listen — the manner of breathing 
alone will reveal all. In girls, under the same circum- 
stances, instead of erections there will be turgescence 
of the corresponding organ and increased redness and 
moisture of the surrounding parts. 

If stains are frequently found upon the night-shirt or 
sheet they must be considered as seminal, for children 
are not subject to any disease that can account for 
it. It is barely possible that it should come from the 
piles, a rare complaint in children and which easily ad- 
mits of verification ; and surely the stains of urine 
could not be misunderstood. When for any reason it 
is impracticable to make the discovery in the manner 



119 

above described these stains can always be critically 
looked for and examined ; ' there is reason to regard 
stains of semen as positive proofs of onanism, when 
the patients have not attained the age of puberty ; and 
as more probable signs of this habit, when older, if 
these stains be frequent.' 

An unnatural appearance and development of the 
genital organs in quite young subjects of either sex, is 
sometimes very apparent. ' The preternatural size 
which masturbation gives to the penis in children/ and 
equally to the corresponding organ in the female child, 
'is so remarkable that this alone is often sufficient to 
reveal this habit.' But this is lost again as the child 
grows up, when the parts are found to be rather thin, 
meagre or flabby. 



CHAPTER V. 

NATURE OF THE DISEASE. 

The Nature of the disease of Masturbation — An affection sui generis — 
Its constant existence— Reasons of its great importance— Descrip- 
tion of, in the male — Its progress and particular symptoms — Its 
three distinct stages — Formula of each stage, with distinctive symp- 
toms — Description of, in the female — Its three corresponding stages 
— Formula of each stage in the female, with distinctive symptoms. 

Abuse of the sexual organs, as well as excesses 
and irregularities, give rise to a distinct affection — 
a disease sui generis ; one which is the result of this 
class of causes only ; which, whatever other diseases 
may accompany or attend it, is always present and, 
according to its degree, marks the stage of the case ; 
and, with some modifications the same holds with 
regard to the female, as I shall presently proceed to 
show. 

Of the long array of diseases that have been 
described as symptoms or consequences or effects 
of self-abuse, any one may or may not be found in 
a given case ; some of them are quite frequently met 



121 

with, others very rarely, while some are pretty con- 
stantly present. But this affection, in one degree or 
other from its incipient to its confirmed and terrible 
form, is never absent in any case whatever. In 
former editions of my Practical Treatise on the dis- 
eases of the genital organs, where the subject of this 
volume, in a short and rudimentary form constituted 
two or three chapters, I called this the ' special dis- 
ease of masturbation ;' and though since then I have 
had immense opportunity, in my private practice, of 
further investigating the subject, I have found my 
definition to have been substantially correct and to 
require only further development, toward which I am 
indebted to late writers. 

Now, this special affection — the real disease of 
masturbation, is of more importance than any or all 
its consequences, and for several reasons. 

Thus, all the symptoms or consequences, local or 
general, are either directly or indirectly caused by 
this ; or, originating otherwise, are maintained by it 
and cannot be cured or much alleviated until, or in 
proportion as, this is modified or cured. 

Again, because for this reason, the first and most 

important part of the treatment must be directed to 

this for any chance of success ; and must . continue 

of paramount interest if a radical cure is aimed at. 
11 



122 

Also because it is either but little understood by 
practitioners generally or its true nature is totally 
misconceived, the whole complaint with its special 
symptoms or consequences being referred to l debility* 
general or local. Almost every patient I treat is a 
proof of this. 

Or, consumption, a general wasting away, hypo- 
chondria, heart-disease, hysterical or nervous diseases, 
leucorrhoea, monomaniacal hallucinations called in- 
sanity, or some other serious or formidable set of symp- 
toms, may so closely simulate the corresponding actual 
disease that this true cause is overlooked — either not 
sought for at all, or ignored — its mere symptoms - 
engrossing all thev attention ; and the unfortunate 
sufferer draws out a lingering existence, or dies — 
his health or life really hanging on that one unknown 
or unrecognised point. 

IN THE MALE. 

This disease in the male commences in the form 
of irritation in the urinary canal, and which, sooner 
or later according to circumstances of constitution or 
temperament, or the degree of energy with which it 
is excited or maintained, passes into the form of sub- 
acute or chronic inflammation — that which has been 
mentioned among the consequences as ' irritation of 
the urinary canal' and referred to several times after- 



123 

ward. Its seat is in the skin that lines the urinary 
canal ; and through this medium, or as it is called, by 
continuity of tissue, may reach every part of the 
genito-urinary apparatus ; for this skin without break 
or interruption lines them all. From the urinary canal 
it passes along the small tubes or ducts into the 
seminal vesicles situated close behind the bladder ; 
through other tubes down into the testicles ; it also 
- lines the excretory ducts of the prostate gland which 
is situated at the neck of the bladder ; lines the 
bladder itself ; the urinary tubes leading to the kid- 
neys, and lastly the interior of the kidney. 

But, though serious disease and even death may 
result from its extension to and settlement in the 
urinary organs of this group, it is from its localization 
in the seminal organs that it derives its great 
importance and from which all the sad effects result, 
and toward them it surely though insidiously advan- 
ces ; these are the testicles, the seminal vesicles, the 
prostate gland. 

While in its primary or incipient form of simple 
irritation it first attacks the testicles, to which it 
imparts greater activity ; they increase a little in 
size, are more tender to the touch and secrete their 
portion of the semen more abundantly. The seminal 
vesicles perhaps at the same time, but probably later 



124 

are acted upon in the same way ; the prostate gland 
either remains uninfluenced for a longer time or is 
much more slightly affected. Thus the two former, 
and perhaps all three secrete their respective com- 
ponents of the semen too fast — there is at first simple 
super-secretion occurring under irritable excitement. 
This, both by its local reaction on the genital organs 
and its sympathetic effect upon the brain, increases 
venereal excitement and erections ; and, the super- 
abundant secretion of semen producing more than 
can be retained, spermatorrhoea or nocturnal seminal 
emissions is the consequence ; it is the first stage 
of the disease of masturbation. 

This irritation itself is not of a permanent char- 
acter, and would soon subside again if not kept up by 
the continuation of the cause that gave rise to it, as 
however it usually is when that cause is masturbation, 
and therefore, soon develops actual disease — subacute 
or chronic inflammation, which is of a permanent char- 
acter. And thus it may remain in a slight form for 
months or years without making much advance in 
degree. The symptoms at once begin to change for 
the worse, but here we have to do only with the 
strictly local ones. The different seminal organs are 
seldom equally affected, the inflammation usually con- 
centrating itself more in one or two of them— in the 



125 

testicles or seminal vesicles, or both ; to determine 
this point, on which successful treatment often turns, 
requires much experience and accurate investigation. 
The nocturnal seminal emissions may continue much 
the same for a time, but as the disease becomes more 
and more established its deleterious effects increase ; 
rapidly if the cause is continued as a confirmed vice, 
more slowly and insidiously, but none the less surely, 
even if it is abandoned ; and, as with any other 
secreting organ suffering under chronic inflammation, 
the secretion itself becomes affected ; so, at length, 
it may be after several years, the semen is altered 
in quality, depraved. If sexual connection is essayed 
the emission is precipitate, perhaps at the very com- 
mencement of the act ; erections are more and more 
transient, they are less firm, and the pleasure of the 
act is more or less impaired. In the early period of this 
stage at the moment of ejaculation a burning or smart- 
ing pain is experienced in the fundament or region 
of the neck of the bladder. In the former stage the 
seminal organs were only functionally disordered — 
they are now organically diseased; and the second 
stage of the real disease of masturbation is estab- 
lished. 

With a good constitution, abstinence from the evil 
practice, temperate and regular habits of life, and 



126 

occasional imperfect attempts at cure chiefly founded 
on the idea of ' debility/ this condition may go on for 
years without material change, as an independent 
disease. But it is always tending to its natural ter- 
mination, hastened or delayed by attending circum- 
stances. The first thing, generally, is increasing 
deterioration of all the seminal secretions, more 
especially of one or two of them, with relaxation 
or loss of tone of the organs themselves, and par- 
ticularly of the ducts leading from the seminal vesicles 
into the urinary canal. Seminal gleet, in one or other 
of its forms of diurnal emissions, or internal seminal 
emissions, the most serious and important symptoms 
of all, both from their terrible results and their in- 
sidiousness and obscurity, may now occur, according 
to the particular circumstanoes in each case, with 
great increase of the general debility. Or, the orifices 
of these ducts in the urinary canal may become ulcerated. 
If the force of the disease be spent upon the testicle 
its secretion is steadily deteriorated and becomes thin, 
watery, useless ; or the organs waste away. The 
prostate gland may also be ulcerated or otherwise 
diseased ; but ere this the part of the semen secreted 
by this gland and the seminal vesicles is also injured 
more or less profoundly, and may be mingled with 
blood, or with matter, or both. The termination is in 
some variety of consumption if death has not occurred 



127 

from other causes. Such is the commencement and 
end of the third stage of the disease of masturbation, 
in the male, drawn as simply and lightly as possible. 

Before proceeding to a description of the disease 
in the female I will give a condensed formula of each 
of these stages, with the symptoms most commonly 
belonging to it, that a patient may judge very nearly 
his own condition, and thus be saved from the fear, 
which I find haunts so many, of having reached an 
incurable state or stage. It will also assist in de- 
scribing the case, if necessary. 



I 



M 



128 



FIRST STAGE. 

Irritation of the seminal or gans,' with functional disorder — The 
semen still healthy — N octurnal seminal emissions. 

Increased appetite, without increase of flesh. 

Lassitude, weariness without cause. 

Disinclination to exercise, either for pleasure or business,. 
idleness. 

Irritability and nervousness, palpitations. 

Heat of hands, flushing of face, bashfulness. 

Dark color under the eyes. 

Unrefreshing sleep, disinclination to arise in the morning. 

Paleness of face and lips. 

Diminished brlliancy of the eye and brightness of expression. 

Distrust of self, easily put out of countenance. 

Erections too easily excited. 

Lascivious thoughts obtrusive, and followed by copious limpid 
discharge. 

Inclination to be alone. 

Shame-faced, troubled in society. 

Temper less amiable, irritable, unnatural. 

Longing after females but strangely shy in their company 

The desire to urinate too frequent. 

Nocturnal seminal emissions with awaking, and with dreams 
if the individual has had sexual connection . 

The sexual act too hurried if attempted. 



12 






129 



SECOND STAGE. 

Subacute inflammation of the seminal organs, actual disease 
being established — semen not healthy — sexual powers injured. 

Indigestion, appetite irregular or unnatural. 

Distress after a meal, especially after breakfast, or followed 
by slight nausea. 

Gostiveness, flatulence, colic, bad breath. 

Inaptitude for study or business. 

Loss of interest in amusements or games. 

Headache, often in the back of the head. 

Timidity, tendency to tremble, amounting to unaccountable 
cowardice. 

Powers of mind weakened, difficulty in thinking, unprepared 
with answers. 

Shortness of breath, sighing, palpitation. 

Unmanly sentimentality, liability to watering of the eyes or 
weeping. 

A sad or melancholy expression, eyes dull, heavy, weak. 

Erections troublesome, but less firm and lasting. 

Lascivious thoughts frequent, the mind haunted with unclean 
or distorted imaginations. 

Seeking for solitude, aversion to company, shunning old 
friends, and especially females. 

Sediments in the urine. 

External organs thin and flabby. 

Nocturnal seminal emissions often without any dream or 
awaking, and followed by depression of spirits, languor, and 
general aggravation of symptoms. 

Sexual act too quick and without proper pleasure, the 
discharge sometimes occurring before entrance, and, in many 
cases, accompanied by a smarting or burning sensation. 

Seminal gleet or diurnal emissions, or internal emissions. 

Semen thinner and less odorous. 

12 



130 



THIRD STAGE. 

Relaxation, ulceration, or destruction of some of the seminal 
organs — Diurnal or internal emissions — Impotence. 

Confirmed dyspepsia, great constipation and occasional loose- 
ness. 

Depraved appetite, or none at all. 

General emaciation, debility. 

Prostration of mind and memory. 

Strange fears and apprehensions, dread of being watched. 

Insult, offense, or slight imagined in every thing. 

Hypochondria, hallucinations, monomania. 

Sleep irregular, or actual sleeplessness. 

Face pale, complexion sallow or muddy. 

Countenance shrunken, pinched, expression anxious, melan- 
cholic or despondent, a besotted or stupid look. 

Eyes sunken and dull. 

Disease of some kind established and unaccountably obstinate 
or irremediable. 

All society shunned, positive aversion to females. 

Love of life weakened. 

Genitals relaxed, flabby and small, wasting of testicles. 

Erections imperfect or wanting. 

Seminal discharge on the slightest provocation. 

Semen thin, watery, with but little odor, or mixed with blood 
or matter. 

Seminal Gleet — semen passed at stool or with the last drops 
of urine, diurnal emissions ; or flowing backward into the blad- 
der, internal emissions. 

Constant drainage of semen. 

Impotence, imbecility, marasmus. 



131 

But, it may be said, many of these complaints arise 
from simple and innocent causes, or- are symptomatic 
of other and quite different disorders — and this is very 
true; but so it equally is of the symptoms of any dis- 
ease; many belong to several diseases in common, 
others may occur from temporary and accidental 
causes, as headache, costiveness, dark circle about the 
eyes, palpitation, and so on indefinitely. But when 
several symptoms known to occur in such cases, are 
met with, reason for suspicion arises ; and if they can- 
not be accounted for in the ordinary way, or when 
such treatment as is generally successful fails, such 
suspicion is much strengthened; and besides, there is 
always a something peculiar in symptoms con- 
nected with masturbation, and other suggestive 
signs and circumstances are discovered, which one 
experienced in the complaint will detect. Further, 
it may safely be said, that, whenever anomalous 
symptoms are observed in any one, and most es- 
pecially in youth of either sex, the possibility of mas- 
turbation should never be lost sight of; and also, 
whenever an apparently common disorder does not 
yield at all, or as it ought to do, to proper treatment. 

And again, it is not to be supposed that in any 
given case the symptoms of either stage will agree 
exactly with these tables, though in some cases they 



132 

will do so very remarkably; for peculiarities of tem- 
perament, education and modes of life, predisposition 
to certain diseases, age, natural strength or weakness 
of the sexual organisation, produce infinite varieties; 
indeed, connected with no other disease is such inter- 
minable diversity of cases to be met with. 

IN THE FEMALE. 

This disease, in the female, commences as irritation 
of the external parts, and has been partially described 
among the consequences under the head of ' irritation/ 
As in the male subject, it extends, through the medium 
of the lining skin, to the urinary canal and bladder, 
exciting frequent desire to make water ; and it may 
pass into the bladder itself and along the urinary tubes 
to the kidneys and produce disease there. But its nat- 
ural and constant tendency is toward the internal gen- 
erative organs, which it is sure to reach sooner or 
later, and whence all its serious and distressing con- 
sequences flow : these organs are the neck of the womb, 
the womb itself, and the appendages attached to it. 

The effect of this state of incipient disease, or irrita- 
tion, in these parts, is to increase their vital activity and 
natural secretions, the local reaction being- to stimulate 
desire, and the sympathetic effect on the brain provoking- 
unchaste thoughts whilst awake and voluptuous dreams 



133 

when asleep. Like irritation of any other organ it is 
transient in its nature, and passes off again if the cause 
is removed without leaving a trace of its former pres- 
ence. Such is the first stage of the disease of mastur- 
bation in the female. 

But if the unfortunate practice is continued irritation 
passes into the form of real disease — subacute inflam- 
mation, which is of a permanent nature. Still it may 
remain very slight for a long time, dependant however 
on the non-continuance of the cause, or the extent to 
which it had been carried, the kind of constitution, the 
comparative strength or weakness of the sexual organ- 
ization. But, sooner or later, it will progress in ac- 
cordance with its nature and will tell fearfully upon 
the victim ; our attention, here, is confined to the local 
manifestations. 

This chronic inflammation, then, becomes established 
in the passage, the neck of the womb, the womb itself, 
its appendages ; but these are never all equally af- 
fected. During the earlier period there will probably 
be swelling and superficial disease of the neck of the 
womb, and inflammation of the passage especially to- 
ward its inner extremity, with moderate leuchorrhoea; 
in the appendages of the womb increased activity and 
supersecretion — a state similar to that in the testicles 
of the male, keeping up the disease and longing for 



134 

gratification experienced in the parts ; the womb itself 
may be unaffected or suffer only a fullness of blood, but 
this, with the increased flow through the other parts, 
gives it an undue weight and predisposes to falling. 
Derangement of the monthly periods is also confirmed. 
A peculiar effect is also exerted upon the sebaceous 
and odoriferous follicles of the parts, the natural and 
healthy secretions of which, declared by King Henry 
the fourth of France to be a more potent provocative 
of desire than any perfume, is lost or so altered as to 
become the very reverse. This is the second stage of 
the disease of masturbation. 

Actual disease thus established in the internal genera- 
tive system, it continues though the habit be abandoned, 
for one characteristic of chronic inflammation is perma- 
nency ; and if it be not abandoned its progress may 
be rapid and fearful. The appendages of the womb 
may become otherwise and dangerously diseased, but 
the injury they are most likely to suffer is a wasting 
away, with apathy, or with positive aversion to the 
sexual embrace. The favorite seat of the disease, how- 
ever — where it is most constantly found and oftenest 
concentrates itself, is the neck of the womb, when it 
passes from simple swelling or engorgement to excori- 
ation and ulceration, with predisposition to degenerate 
into some form of cancer. And in remarkable connec- 



135 

tion with disease of this part are affections of the 
nervous system, the mind and the temper. 

Continued chronic inflammation in the passage is at- 
tended with increasing discharge or whites ; loss of 
contractility of the entrance of the passage ; relax- 
ation and diminished sensibility of its entire extent 
and of the external parts, sometimes to such a degree 
that the sexual embrace affords little pleasure, even 
rather disappointment, or disgust. And in connection 
with disease of the neck the leucorrhoeal discharge is 
exaggerated, offensive, mattery, or tinged with blood. 
The monthly periods are more and more deranged, ex- 
cessive or suppressed ; and falling of the womb is in 
many cases established. 

With a good constitution and other favorable circum- 
stances the disease may, and often does, remain in a 
moderate form for many years, merely keeping up an 
endless train of unaccountable and recurring ailments 
— robbing the unhappy victim of her charms and life 
of all its pleasure. But it is very likely to cause death, 
indirectly, through other disease ; or, to end in one of 
the several forms of consumption. Such is the progress 
and termination, if left to itself, of the third stage of 
the special disease of masturbation, in the female. 

I will now give a formula of each of these stages in the 



136 

female also, with the symptoms most generally belonging 
to them, subject to the same remarks as precede those 
for the male. 

FIRST STAGE. 

Irritation of the external and internal sexual apparatus , with 
functional disorder — secretions augmented . 

Increased appetite with, decrease of flesh.. 

Lassitude, weariness, disinclination to move about, or walk 
out. 

Skin losing its healthy freshness, the lips their fulness and 
color. 

Bluish, or dark color forming about the eyes. 

Heat in palms of hands, and feet, irregular flushing of face 
and skin. 

Readiness to retire to bed and dislike to arise in the morning. 

Character growing apathetic, appearance weak and languid. 

Eyes losing their brightness. 

A fondness for being alone, growing habit of novel-reading in 
the bedroom or in secluded places. 

Disregard of playmates and amusements. 

Company of her own sex dull and uninteresting. 

A confused or awkward bashfulness in presence of the oppo- 
site sex. 

Unchaste thoughts becoming frequent. 

Premature swelling and tenderness of the breasts and appear- 
ance of the monthly discharges. 

External parts fuller and more developed than natural, more 
heat and redness than proper, increase of the natural moisture 
and secretions. 

Slight leuchorrhoea or whites. 

Too frequent desire to pass the water. 



137 



SECOND STAGE. 

Subacute inflammation of the internal organs, actual disease 
established — secretions unhealthy . 

Indigestion ; irregular, capricious appetite. 

Discomfort after eating, heart-burn. 

No appetite for breakfast and nausea after it. 

Costiveness, flatulence, bad breath. 

Incapacity for study or application. 

Headache, swimming in the head, hysteric or nervous fits. 

Foolishly timid, terrified by trifles, unnerved. 

Growing emaciation, sallow and unhealthy complexion, eyes 
dimmed and weak. 

Intolerance of fatigue, or of changes of weather. 

Shortness of breath or palpitations disproportionate to the sur- 
prise or excitement. 

Expression of indifference, appearance of dissatisfaction, gen- 
eral languor, dispelled only by the society of the other sex. 

Sleep unsound, awaking unrefreshed or wearier than on re- 
tiring. 

The healthy fragrance of the body and blooming tints of skin 
fading. 

The mind haunted by immodest and voluptuous ideas, and a^. 
night by lascivious dreams. 

Irritable venereal sensations and urgent desire for gratification. 

Mock-modesty, affectation of virtuousness, sensitiveness to 
words capable of double meaning, inability to use or hear the 
word leg, stone, etc. 

Menstrual discharge deranged, pains in the back. 

Desire to urinate too frequent, or painful. 

Leucorrhcea established. 

External parts pale, the natural odor lost or altered. 

Actual disease of the neck of the womb. 



138 



THIRD STAGE. 

Wasting, or ulceration, of the internal organs — Relaxation and 
loss of sensibility — Distorted or destroyed sexual appetite. 

Confirmed dyspepsia, appetite depraved or wanting. 

Obstinate constipation, occasional looseness, breath offensive. 

Sleep irregular and troubled, or sleeplessness. 

Debility, incapability of exercise, swelling of legs and feet. 

Hysterics, headache, strange aches pains and ailments. 

Anomalous affections refractory to treatment. 

Mind and memory weak, the temper soured, peevish, uncertain. 

The face thin and sharp, expression of melancholy or suffer- 
ing, the eyes dull and hollow, the sight weak, lips bloodless, the 
limbs wasted, the breasts shrunk and loose, voice thin or whining. 

Skin harsh, perspiration unhealthy or offensive. 

Strange hallucinations, religious monomania, or confirmed 
melancholy. 

Immoderate longing for, or utter aversion to, men. 

Leucorrhcea or whites bad, dragging pains in the back. 

More or less falling of the womb. 

Urine disordered, turbid, or too copious and watery. 

Admixture of blood, or of matter, with the leucorrhoeal dis- 
charge. 

External parts pale, flabby, shrunken, dry. 

Ulceration of neck of womb, or still more serious state of dis- 
ease. 



139 

Now, the remarks ■ made after these formulae in the 
male are equally applicable here; a person is not to be 
accused of, or set down as, guilty of this vice from any 
symptom, however decided it may appear; no one or 
two symptoms, alone, can be conclusive, though some 
are very indicative and justify solicitude and watchful- 
ness on the part of parents or friends. In Ihe party 
concerned, even if before unaware of the connection, 
conscience will prove faithful. 

At the advent of puberty the womanly attributes are 
in process of development, and during this intermediate 
period mental and physical irregularities, otherwise 
unaccountable and sometimes remarkable, may be pre- 
sented; or, in weak and delicate subjects, chlorosis 
may occur; these have their own peculiar characteris- 
tics, and should not deceive us; so of symptoms of 
debility or nervousness from disease or other tangible 
cause. But, when we see a girl losing the graces, 
the charms, the sprightliness of youth; when the pow- 
ers of life are languishing ; when the exquisitely devel- 
oped beauties of form are shrinking away — the illumi- 
nation of loveliness fading ; when a young woman 
1 ages' prematurely — is always looking ill, and neither 
her friends nor her physician can detect a reason for it, 
shall a false delicacy resign her to death ? and where, 
unless pulmonary consumption is actually established, 
she can almost certainly be restored. 



CHAPTER VI. 

STRICTURE, SEMINAL GLEET, IMPOTENCE. 

Stricture, Seminal Gleet, Impotence — Peculiar tendency to stricture in every 
case — The true nature of stricture — It may continue after the seminal dis- 
ease is cured— Symptoms of stricture — Seminal Gleet — May succeed to noc- 
turnal emissions— When it may be suspected — Great danger from its ob- 
scure and insidious nature — Local symptoms of seminal gleet — Is easily mis- 
taken or overlooked — Internal seminal emissions, still more obscure — Ap- 
pearances of, in the urine — Special symptoms — Danger — Impotence. 

The serious nature of these two diseases, whether 
as consequences of abuse, excess, or disease, has de- 
termined me te devote a chapter to them alone, in 
order to consider them more fully than could ap- 
propriately be done amongst the symptoms or conse- 
quences. 

STRICTURE OF THE URINARY PASSAGE. 

This is, at any time, an important and serious com- 
plaint. It is peculiarly so as one of the consequences 
of masturbation or of excesses; first, because, in the 
male, there is a natural tendency to it in every case. 
The essential nature of stricture, as is so fully ex- 
plained in my ' Practical Treatise/ is chronic inflam- 



141 

'mation, and this may originate in simple irritation. 
Now, in the preceding* chapter it is shown how this 
irritation, commencing in the urinary canal, becomes 
the cause of actual disease in the sexual organs ; strict- 
ure is merely mentioned as one of its results, the 
others claiming more attention there ; but here we are 
dealing only with the urinary canal. 

Now it may and generally does happen that the irri- 
tation, though it passes on to the further organs, still 
leaves a permanent irritation in a certain part of the 
canal; just, in fact, as happens in a badly treated case 
of gonorrhoea; and like that, when once established it 
never spontaneously disappears; and both alike are 
characterised by slowness. It sooner or later settles 
into chronic inflammation, gradually contracts in ex- 
tent, and assumes the form of a circumscribed engorge- 
ment of the lining skin of the canal — this is incipient 
stricture. In the course of time, it may even be several 
years, this soft engorgement grows denser and more 
contracted, but still yields to the advance of a gum- 
elastic instrument — this is dilatable stricture. At length, 
sometimes after a number of years, it becomes so nar- 
row, hard and unyielding that it resists the passage of 
the instrument altogether or only allows a very small 
one to go through — this is permanent or callous stricture. 

Secondly, because all the other consequences of 



142 

abuse or excess may have passed off or been cured, 
and the stricture alone remaining may perpetuate 
many of the old symptoms; for some of the symptoms 
of both are alike, as will presently be seen. In such a 
case the patient never seems to get well; and it is 
especially likely to occur when he has been treated by 
medicine or by hygienic or dietetic means, only; or, 
when he has also contracted disease. The truth is 
that neither the special disease, nor stricture, can ever 
be cured by general treatment of any kind without ap- 
propriate local treatment also — all that may ever be 
heard or read to the contrary notwithstanding; and to 
be faithful this must be insisted on. When masturba- 
tion or the effects of excess are correctly and radically 
cured no such thing will ever remain afterward. 

The symptoms of stricture. These, taken all together, 
are very numerous; I will mention the most constant; 
and those that may cause mistake will be easily recog- 
nised. There is always a little dripping after making 
water, a few drops remain and are apt to wet the shirt; 
a little hesitation before the stream starts; in some 
cases a desire to urinate too often, or to get up at 
night for the purpose; a shrinking or dwindling of the 
penis; pain or weakness in the small of the back; less 
perfect erections and diminished sexual inclinations; 
more and more narrowness of the stream as the strict- 



143 

ure grows worse, even becoming very small, or the 
water running away drop by drop, or complete stop- 
page; loss of memory, especially of names and places; 
dulness, sleepiness, disinclination to arouse the mind 
or to attend to business, dislike of company, some- 
times amounting to hypochondria; pains in the testi- 
cles, round the hips, or down the legs, sometimes to 
the soles of the feet; a variable, or only occasional 
gleety discharge, especially after the sexual act, and 
then at times looking like new disease, or after drink- 
ing or taking cold; decreasing erectile powers, with or 
without loss of inclination, in some cases actual im- 
potence. It is plain, therefore, that a remaining 
stricture may simulate the original disease; there is 
one thing however, in its favor — its perfect curability. 
In every point of view, or from whatever cause, the 
importance of stricture is hot easily exaggerated. 

SEMINAL GLEET. 

Especial importance attaches to this complaint both 
from its obscure and insidious character, and from the 
grave nature of its consequences. 

Seminal gleet comprises the several forms of Diurnal 
emissions. Nocturnal seminal emissions are bad 
enough, but their occurrence is obvious and unmistake- 
able ; everybody is more or less aware of their weak- 
ening and dangerous consequences, and knows when 



144 

he is suffering from their effects. But it is not at all 
generally so much with seminal gleet; and what is 
worse is that, often, it succeeds to or takes the place 
of the nocturnal emissions either spontaneously or 
after treatment, thus deceiving the patient into a false 
security, whilst, by its more diseased nature and more 
constant draining away of the precious fluid it is 
really still more surely and rapidly undermining his 
constitution. 

Whenever, therefore, a person has nearly or quite 
recovered from his nocturnal emissions by medical 
treatment or otherwise, and yet does not recover his 
health and strength; or, some other co-existing dis- 
ease proves intractable under proper means of cure, 
and without any discoverable reason; or he steadily 
declines, some other form of seminal loss ought to be 
suspected. 

The obscure and insidious character of this disease 
is remarkable; patients frequently come to me about 
complaints or weakness, some connected with the 
sexual organs and some not, who have a seminal gleet 
which is evident enough to them when once discovered 
and pointed out; yet they never had the least idea of 
it, or if they had observed the particular symptom 
were ignorant of its meaning. 

The Local Symptoms of Seminal Gleet show themselves 



145 

in several different ways. One form, and which is 
most likely to be noticed, occurs chiefly when the per- 
son has to strain at stool, which is most generally from 
costiveness; it will then be found that a jelly-like or 
glairy substance escapes from the urinary canal; some- 
times almost a teaspoon-full comes away, having more 
or less exactly the look of semen. It usually appears 
during or immediately after the straining, but may be 
a minute or so afterward. This discharge is generally 
known of, because it gives a peculiar sensation as it 
passes along the passage. It may also be occasioned 
by other causes than abuses, by gonorrhoea, gleet, 
stricture, sexual excesses, sudden absolute continence, 
but will always, sooner or later, entail its terrible de- 
pressing effects both on mind and body. And, by long 
continuance, such discharges grow so facile that, at 
last, they take place without any costiveness or strain- 
ing at all, even when the bowels are ever so loose. 

After great and unusual straining efforts, a drop or 
two of clear transparent mucus may be forced out by 
the pressure and remain at the orifice, but this will 
never be known unless looked for, and it is very differ- 
ent from the discharges referred to. And this leads 
me to remark, that, if some one or other of the dis- 
charges here described or very nearly simulating them, 
happens to a person in sound and good health, and he 
13 



146 

continues so, doubtless they are of no moment and may- 
be disregarded; but, if happening, and the person is 
out of health, always ailing or complaining yet nothing 
the matter with him, pale and flabby, an invalid, and 
no sufficient reason can be found for his being so — he 
had better look to such symptoms. 

There is another, not so common, which is generally 
brought on through abuse of the organs either by 
natural or unnatural excesses. A soft, imperfect or 
semi-erection occurs often from the very slightest ex- 
citement, and attended or succeeded by the stealing 
away of a slimy substance, sometimes in quantity, 
sometimes only slowly and gradually; this also is likely 
to be known, though it may not be understood. 

But there is one form so easily overlooked that the 
patient hardly ever discovers it himself, or thinks any- 
thing of it if he does ; but which is not the less serious 
in its consequences. It may be known by a slimy or 
slippery feel that the last drops of urine will have, if 
taken between the thumb and finger just as they pass 
away and rubbed ; in the absence of this the last drops, 
tried in the same way, will feel even rougher than a 
drop or two of plain water would. If closely observed 
the last drops of the urine will be seen to come away 
as if a little thick or gummy instead of sharply and 
promptly like water. Now, this does not indicate ac- 



147 

tual internal emissions, for in the latter the semen is 
more mingled with the urine, while in the former it is 
rather pressed out by the last spasmodic contractions 
of the bladder; still, in either case, it is principally 
found in the last of the urine, and they may easily be 
confounded. 

Sometimes, just as the semen is passing out of the 
ducts there will be some turgescence or slight effort 
at erection and a peculiar sensation; or sometimes it 
will take place just after the stream of urine is finished 
instead of with the last drops of it. There is also, 
generally, a too frequent desire to urinate. 

Unfortunately, this seminal gleet, prolific source as 
it is of misery and death, is not at all understood by 
the profession. If the patient apply to his family phy- 
sician the first variety will be merely called a chronic 
disease of the prostate gland, or prostatic discharge — 
and so it may be; but it is usually more. The second 
will be treated as a seminal weakness — and so it is ; 
but the tonic medicines and cold bathing will not cure 
it. The third will simply be pooh-pooh'd ; yet the pa- 
tient's life may, in reality, be dependent, ultimately, 
upon its present recognition and cure. 

INTERNAL SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 

These exist where, under circumstances which some- 
times occur, and especially the injudicious or empirical 



148 

interference with nocturnal emissions, the passage of 
the semen is reversed, and it flows backward into the 
bladder instead of forward and outward through the 
urinary canal. And this has been the cause of hypo- 
chondria, insanity, pulmonary and dorsal consumption, 
death, in many a person in whom its existence has 
never been suspected. It is even more insidious and 
obscure than the former, for it gives no outward sign 
at all; and its appearance in the urine, in the gen- 
erality of cases, can only be detected by an experienced 
eye ; and is often verified with difficulty even with the 
assistance of artificial means. 

Sometimes, however, the patient may be able to 
judge by the appearance of his water; if the last 
ounce or so is caught in a wineglass and allowed to 
stand a few hours, the urine being clear, half-trans- 
parent irregular-shaped but rather round little bodies 
may be discovered settled down to the bottom of the 
glass, but mingling again if shook up. If the superna- 
tant fluid be carefully poured off they will be found to 
feel soft and slippery between the fingers. Sometimes j 
this deposit is of a rather clouded kind with little 
bright points or spots sprinkled through it. These 
appearances will not be always discoverable in the] 
urine; there may be days without any; they will be 
found in it more especially, and with greater distinct- ; 



149 

ness, after a lascivious dream, loose conversation or 
exciting reading, indecent pictures or sights, or vene- 
real thoughts ; any thing that has tended to excite erec- 
tions. Still, it may be there and elude all unpracticed 
scrutiny. 

The symptoms that more particularly attend seminal 
gleet, or internal emissions, are, diminution of pleasure 
in the sexual act; erections growing less and less fre- 
quent and of shorter duration, or the seminal ejacula- 
tion arriving too quickly; the sexual act fatiguing, or 
even followed by symptoms like those of nocturnal 
emissions, and which may last a great part of the day; 
a pain or weakness in the small of the back; a too fre- 
quent desire to urinate. 

Often, the patient's external appearance is no index 
to the true state of his case, but, as professor Lallemand 
well observes, ' The good health of such patients is 
only apparent ; the least circumstances disorder it, 
and what they suffer is unsuspected ; their parents, 
their most intimate friends, are ignorant of the cause 
of the various disorders they complain of ; the medical 
man who possesses their confidence is not better in- 
formed, because the patients themselves do not suspect 
it ; thus their indispositions are set down to ennui, 
tendency to melancholy, hypochondria. When their 
diseases become more serious, their constitutions are 



150 

said to be delicate, impressionable, or unhealthy, or 
they are considered malades imaginaires. They are 
told that they pay too much attention to themselves, or 
that they have fondness for medicines. Medical men 
in large practice get tired of hearing their long series 
of inexplicable complaints, and get rid of them by ad- 
vising travelling, or change of air. Charlatans rob 
them ; officious friends advise marriage, or occupation 
to fill the void in their existence ; every one blames, 
because no one understands them. Incapable of all se- 
rious occupation or deep affection, they grow discon- 
tented with themselves and still more so with others ; 
absorbed by one sole thought, they return unceasing- 
ly to themselves to seek the cause of their condition, 
and soon become misanthropical/ 

I have thus endeavored to point out, clearly and in- 
telligibly, the nature of these important and dangerous 
affections, with the means of detecting their existence ; 
and, I feel confident, it will lead to the restoration of 
health and the saving of life even, in many instances. 
They are all difficult, sometimes obstinate cases, requir- 
ing skill united to great experience on the part of the 
surgeon ; confidence and patience on the part of the 
patient ; but all will in due time be repaid — even in 
apparently hopeless cases. if the patient's health be not 
already mortally involved through other or induced dis- 



151 

ease — by restoration to natural tone and action, and 
general health. 

IMPOTENCE. 

The history of Stricture and of the different forms of 
Seminal loss is the history of impotence. When it de- 
pends upon such causes it is generally curable ; when 
from other causes it may or it may not be. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE TREATMENT. 

The Treatment.— Introductory remarks — Possibility of spontaneous cure during 
the period of the first stage, in either sex, and always, in children — Spontane- 
ous cure impossible afterward — Advantages of a written statement of the case 
previous to consultation — Preventive treatment — Direct preventive means — In- 
direct preventive means — A new remedy, preventive and curative, proposed — 
Hygienic treatment, Diet, Exercise, Occupation, Bed, Bathing — Marriage, 
when remedial, when hurtful — When proper in the female case — Medical 
treatment — Vitally impor tant information and warning s — When seminal noc- 
turnal emissions constitute disease and when they do not. 

In the treatment of abuses or excesses, or the dis- 
eases resulting therefrom the first and all-important 
step, as it would seem almost unnecessary to say, is 
the positive abandonment of the cause, and this is the 
more necessary to insist upon when that cause is mas- 
turbation, because that cause is the most difficult to 
abandon. Yet it is a sine qua non, as no one who has 
read the foregoing will for a moment doubt ; happy 
were it as easily done as said. But it is far from be- 
ing so ; the whole moral power of the individual must 
be summoned, with the aid of whatever other helps can 
be availed of or brought to bear in the case. 



153 

And it presents especial difficulties when it occurs in 
quite young subjects, ' at a time' as the very practical 
Dr. Wilson says, ' when the moral power is insufficient 
to oppose the contagion of bad example, or the force 
of violent and precocious animal passions. Indul- 
gence of this habit under these circumstances ought 
not, in my opinion, to be classed in the list of moral 
crimes, as too frequently happens, but rather in that of 
disease. The principal difficulty in the management 
and cure of this fatal propensity is the incapability 
of making the patient, at an early age, fully under- 
stand the injurious influence upon the constitution or 
its after effects. It is not an easy matter to convince 
him that he is pursuing a course that demands the very 
strictest attention and counteraction to save him from 
the most evil consequences to his health. To him the 
necessity for a strict resistance is quite incomprehensi- 
ble ; he is practising, as he believes, a simple sensual 
gratification merely, and if at any time it occurs to his 
mind, that he is doing something which is wrong, the 
impression unfortunately is so slight as scarcely to oc- 
casion him a moment's uneasiness. He relies, perhaps, 
on his capability of giving up the habit at a later age, 
before it becomes injurious to his health. In this idea, 
however, he will find himself sadly mistaken. V^hen 
the mind has become morbidly directed to this subject, 
it is continually and irresistibly seeking the means of 
14 



154 

reproducing its pleasurable sensations. There is no de- 
parture from the idea, every moment unoccupied in 
bodily exertion is devoted to erotic fancies, and even 
sleep is not exempt from the mental fascination. As 
the disease increases in intensity, the mind wearies of 
any direction but the one, and however much it may 
be distracted for a short time, wanders back unconsci- 
ously to its morbid train of thought.' 

And again he remarks, ' It is a prevailing idea that 
the disease will prove of easy self-correction when the 
mind begins to comprehend the degradation of the 
habit ; and that as the child becomes older, he will 
leave off the practice of his own accord. Nothing can 
be more fallacious than this supposition, and the 
reverse is more generally the case ; the demand for 
the peculiar excitement becomes more urgent, and the 
moral disgrace lessens in his own eyes in proportion as 
the practice acquires an ascendancy over the mind. 
The endeavor to stay its progress cannot, therefore, 
be too prompt or too energetic.' 

It has been recommended by some writers to aban- 
don the vice gradually ; and patients, in one way 
or other awakened to a sense of the enormity of their. 
folly, often propose this plan to themselves ; but it 
is a fallacy, and ends in utter failure. Action must 
be decisive, in intention at least, for compromise and 



155 

failure are synonymous. A resoluce determination 
may be overcome, again and again overcome, but 
triumphs at last ; for the human will once truly fixed 
is, in every thing, invincible — all but ominpotent. 
No case, therefore, is hopeless, that has the energy to 
resolve at all. 

When the habit is broken off within the period 
of the first stage, i. e. before the irritation has passed 
into the form of actual disease or chronic inflammation, 
although nocturnal emissions may have already oc- 
curred, and do generally become more frequent for 
a time from the sudden cessation of the unnatural act 
and accompanying discharges, yet spontaneous re- 
covery is the rule ; hastened however, by the atten- 
tion to hygienic measures which is generally observed; 
but, at any rate, absolute removal of the cause is then 
followed by a natural cure. And, in the case of chil- 
dren, or females, which is much the same thing, 
recovery, even from apparently most serious conse- 
quences is astonishingly rapid ; the former do not, 
and the latter can not, have seminal emissions. 

And here we find the reason why although so many, 
perhaps almost all of the male and a great many of 
the female sex, have practised this vice more or less, 
yet so comparatively few suffer from it, at least — so far 
as they are aware of Why those who, neither knowing 



156 

or looking beyond their own personal experience, say 
there is no harm in it. And why even some eminent 
medical authorities have under-rated or doubted its 
fearful powers of mischief. 

But if the second stage, the period of subacute 
inflammation or permanent diseased action, has ar- 
rived, the possibility of spontaneous cure is passed, 
no matter how strictly moral control, dieting, bathing 
and the rest may be observed. It may then be held 
more or less in check but it will never be cured by 
them, because morbid seminal emissions in one of 
their forms, obviously or obscurely, from part or from 
all of the seminal organs, still go on ; fortunate, in- 
deed, if they continue in the more obvious form of 
nocturnal emissions, for then the sufferer himself, at 
any rate, is not thrown off his guard. 

According to the frequency of the seminal losses, 
the degree of morbid character belonging to them, and 
the comparative strength of the sexual organisation 
of the individual will be the increase of the local 
disorder and the aggravation of the general symp- 
toms ; but always an inevitable increase at one rate - 
or other. The great danger during this period is the 
apparition of other disease, especially if any heredi- 
tary or accidental predisposition exist, with anoma- 
lous and unmanageable characters and permanent or 
fatal result. 



157 

The treatment of masturbation or excesses is natu- 
rally divided into three kinds of means. 

When the subject of this vice has discovered its 
real nature or effects he or she will find, by a study of 
the hygienic treatment here described, the means which 
should at once be put in practice, and which are 
within the reach of every one ; while parents, guar- 
dians, or others will see, in the preventive treatment, 
the means that have been employed and reported as 
more or less successful ; but which are, in a great 
measure, to be determined by the peculiarities and 
circumstances of each individual case. 

Before the commencement of any kind of treatment 
whatever, when masturbation is suspected, certainty 
as to the existence of the vice, is essential ; and when 
the absolute commission of the act cannot be detected, 
yet a knowledge of the signs and a vigilant watch- 
fulness will lead so near that the individual can be 
charged with it and a confession obtained, the which, in 
view of whatever remedial or preventive measures 
are to be taken, is indispensable, as the following 
judicious and practical remarks so well express, 
1 First, it removes all doubt ; then it renders the 
action of the physician more frank, and consequently 
more efficacious. He is no longer fearful of wounding 
the feelings — of compromising his character, by show- 



158 

ing a wrongly founded suspicion ; of awaking the 
attention of the young patient to a subject of which 
he was ignorant, or of teaching it to him. Advice, 
remonstrance, punishments, and all the moral re- 
medies, are now easily applicable ; and if therapeutic 
or coercive measures are called for, the patient can no 
longer deny their utility, and reject their use. Finally, 
an avowal places the physician, parents, instructors — 
in short, all who have authority over the patient — in 
a position to proceed directly to their aim, and thereby 
attain it.' 

' An avowal never takes place spontaneously; to ob- 
tain it is difficult. With males, one need not be so 
particular; but we must be careful with females. On 
this topic no positive advice can be given; much must 
be left to the tact of the practitioner. We will only 
add, that we have more than once simply given advice ; 
and we could see, from the manner in which it was 
received, that our conjectures were right. The physi- 
cian, however, should always attempt to acquire the 
confidence of the onanist, to place him at his ease. 
They have no frankness where a person is stern, or 
when a moral lecture is expected. The physician 
should confine himself to his profession. In his eye, 
onanism should be regarded as a cause of disease — as 
a cause similiar to an excess of labor, bad regimen — 



159 

in fact, like any influence which might prove injurious 
to the health/ 

I have observed that the difficulty of obtaining such . 
avowal is rather experienced by parents or others 
than by the physician, who, if he have much experience 
of the subject hardly asks anything at all. And this is 
natural, and proper; so painful and mortifying a con- 
fession will not be made to one looked upon perhaps 
as an inquisitor as it will to one coming as a friend 
and deliverer. 

I have found that patients, sometimes, before con- 
sulting me personally on this or any other matter 
which they consider very delicate or which would be 
especially mortifying or repugnant to their feelings to 
relate, first open the subject in writing, either hand- 
ing the letter to me or sending it through the post a 
day or two before their visit; and it is a very excellent 
plan, for it not only does away with a certain distress 
or sense of shame that many experience in a first in- 
terview, as well as the worry and nervousness caused 
to such by its anticipation; but it allows the patient 
quietly and at his leisure to collect his thoughts and 
make a complete statement of his case, its causes, 
peculiar circumstances, etc., etc.; instead of forgetting 
or holding back half he meant to say — in fact, it puts 
both parties at their ease amazingly, and robs such 



160 

interview of its anticipated pain. In the female case 
especially it is a suitable plan. We will now pro- 
ceed to the consideration of the treatment. 

The Preventive Treatment. This is of course only 
adapted to very young subjects, or to those who be- 
come imbecile, or who have so succumbed to the in- 
fluence of the vice as to be unable to control their own 
actions. It may consist of direct or of indirect means 
of prevention. 

Various direct means have been devised and put 
into practice and recorded. In some cases the hands 
have been tied so that they could not easily, or as 
sometimes happens, half unconsciously, seek the 
genitals; the straight-waistcoat has also been em- 
ployed, so as to keep the arms on the chest. A night 
shirt, made too long and tied at the bottom, has been 
used to prevent easy access to the parts; or drawers 
made to open behind. When the habit is not too con- 
firmed or the patient is willing to attempt reformation, 
such means have been found of great assistance; they 
can also be put into practice when it is wished to 
place impediments in the way without explaining the 
purpose to the young patient. A cold poultice ap- 
plied over the parts has been reported of favorably. 

But more positive measures are at times found neces- 



161 

sary. A young man for a length of time kept a 
servant sitting in his room all night and a dim light 
burning, to awake him if he made any movement to- 
ward gratifying his morbid propensity. Different 
bandages and apparatus have been invented to be 
used at night, or day and night, to prevent any access 
to the parts; I have often seen them exhibited in the 
shop windows in Paris, ticketed l appareil contre Fon- 
anisme.' A mother who discovered the vice in a 
daughter of seven years, without accusing her of it, 
ingeniously and effectually bandaged her, saying this 
was customary for girls of her age, and which proved 
successful. 

Using some means to render the organs sore and , 
painful to the touch, either internally or externally 
has been found very successful, in boys especially; 
blistering the penis, or with the parts immediately 
surrounding, has been one means which, by the subse- 
quent soreness that remains for some time, hinders the 
act in bed or while asleep. 

I do not remember to have seen it proposed as a 
direct preventive, but should strongly recommend cir- 
cumcision in boys, or even young men, when other 
means have failed, as a most promising measure; or 
even in children as a prompt and final measure ; and 
by all means to be performed without the use of 



162 

chloroform. It must prove powerfully preventive, 
first, by the little shock caused by the pain, just bad 
enough to make a good impression on the mind; next, 
by the consequent soreness extending over two or 
three weeks, just enough to make a long and distinct 
break in the habit; and lastly, and for all the future, 
by the perfect removal of that super-excitability which 
the foreskin maintains, and which led Dr. Copland to 
say that ' the neglect of circumcision in Christian 
countries is certainly no mean physical cause of the 
prevalence of this vice, and of many of the conse- 
quences which follow. The institution of this rite for 
the descendants of Abraham, and the faithful observ- 
ance of it to the present day not only by them, but 
also by the followers of Mohammad, have tended, 
amid numerous countervailing influences and persecu- 
tions, to perpetuate an enduring and healthy race ; the 
beneficial results of circumcision being experienced 
not only by the individual himself, but also by his 
offspring, and even indirectly by the female sex, as may 
be inferred from various physiological considerations.' 

And Dr. Lallemand writes, 'Indeed, after having 
long and seriously reflected on the numerous cases that 
have come under my notice, I have arrived at the opin- 
ion, that the discontinuance of the practice of circum- 
cising children is to be regretted; the operation is, 



163 

without doubt, unnecessary in many cases, but it can 
never be injurious, and in a great proportion it would 
be exceedingly useful.' 

The operation is quickly done and is perfectly free 
from danger; I have operated on the foreskin in many 
cases for other reasons, and never found the least diffi- 
culty arise from it. A nearly corresponding little op- 
eration in the female, of removing the offending part, 
which is small and taken away very quickly and with 
trifling pain, has repeatedly proved effectual, though 
recourse has been had to it only in extreme cases, being 
followed by perfect recovery both of body and mind. 

Men are very apt to propose the removal of their tes- 
ticles, either as an heroic remedy for the habit or for 
the debilitating seminal emissions. They seem to ima- 
gine that the whole difficulty is concentrated there, 
and surgeons have been importuned to castrate their 
patients, and in some instances have yielded to urgent 
and continued importunity; but it is a great mistake; 
such mutilation has been profoundly and injuriously 
felt throughout the whole nature, yet with but a par- 
tial cure, or total failure. It has been proposed to me 
by many patients, sometimes in earnest, sometimes 
suggesting it as perhaps a last resort — so general is 
the idea of its efficacy. 



164 

The indirect preventive means are in many cases 
sufficient. The principal, perhaps, of these consists in 
the thwarting of solitude. It should be so managed 
that the young person be very little alone, or for a 
very little while at a time ; and that he or she never 
be sure of privacy or retirement at any time ; and this 
may be done without the subject being aware of the 
reason or that it is really done with any special object. 
The habit of sleeping with the hands and arms out of 
bed and the face and neck uncovered should be formed 
from infancy, or afterward insisted on. Care should 
also be taken that little or no liquid is drunk near bed- 
time, or indeed after supper unless in the hottest 
weather; also that the water is passed before getting 
into bed and the first thing on getting up. 

Keeping the young person by one device or other, 
during play, work or studies, constantly about or in 
the company of elder people is an important means, 
and greatly tends to keep the mind interested and 
diverted from self. It has sometimes been found neces- 
sary for the child to sleep with one of the parents, or a 
relative; instances are recorded of mothers sharing 
their bed with a daughter with the happiest result. 

Too much heat, either of clothing, dwelling apart- 
ments or bed, should be avoided, for a luxurious or 
delicate bringing up predisposes to sexual precocity. 



165 

Also, flannel should not be worn next the skin, and 
woollen pantaloons ought always to be lined because 
of the exciting or stimulating effect, of such fabrics. 

Also, a child should be either sleepy or tired before 
'going to bed; and partly to this end and partly to 
avoid temptation or risk early in the morning when 
erections are liable to occur naturally and healthily, 
he should always arise early. Exercise — muscular exer- 
cise to the extent of moderate fatigue, and out of doors 
as much as possible, affords perhaps the most powerful 
indirect means of prevention that can be employed. 
1 This alone is able to deaden the susceptibility of the 
newly acting organs which excite the economy; exer- 
cise alone, by requiring matter for the repair of the 
muscular waste it causes, withdraws a stimulus from 
the genital organs, and induces sound and refreshing 
sleep.' 

Prevention by precept is of little or no value. In 
quite young children it is, of course, utterly useless. 
In youths of either sex, growing up, or who are una- 
voidably exposed to or have a knowledge of the exist- 
ence of such a vice,. a judicious word or two in the way 
o£ precaution and opportunely given, perhaps pointing 
to its effects in some one, or explaining its inevitable 
and direful effects, especially as to loss of the much 
coveted attributes of manhood in the one sex, or of the 



166 

graces and charms of womanhood in the other — so 
managed as to look to and work upon the animal and 
intellectual pride, but in no way seeming to suspect 
the individual of such foolish practices, might, and 
probably would, be all-effective. But, if the habit is 
established and has told upon the system before it 
was suspected or discovered its influence over the mind 
and will is such that reproof, persuasion, eloquence, or 
anything else would be so many waste words — then, 
proof must be obtained, or as nearly as possible, the 
sufferer charged directly with it, the better by a physi- 
cian, and, according to the age of the subject the 
proper treatment, preventive, hygienic, or medical, or 
a combination of all, put in force. 

It has been recommended to make all acquainted 
with this subject; by some, under the reformer's cant 
plea of i know thyself;' by others, without any know- 
ledge or thought at all. But if a child has been prop- 
erly brought up — has happily had parents or guardians 
who were acquainted with these dangers and exercised 
a right watchfulness, its mind will remain innocent ©f 
such abominations; and if it sees or is told of such 
things by others its nature will recoil instinctively 
with a healthy animal pride. Still, if it is determined 
upon, or necessary, to expose a child or youth to the 
fearful risks of an ordinary boarding-school, then he 



16? 

or she should either be judiciously informed of what 
will inevitably be met with, or be supplied with a 
proper book on the subject. 

The Hygienic Treatment may properly include every- 
thing that relates to the mode of life. But the rules 
usually laid down, though excellent in themselves, are 
given in so general a ^manner as often to do harm in- 
stead of good, for they are indiscriminately applied to 
all the stages alike. 

Diet is of the first importance in all cases. It should 
always be unirritating, easy of digestion, in moderate 
quantity ; and the supper or last meal of the day very 
light, and never taken so late that digestion must go 
on in bed. 

As a rule — all liquor, wine, beer or cider should be 
strictly abstained from ; and of all of them strong beer 
or ale is the worst. Coffee also is condemned by all 
observers, for it is not only a diuretic or excitant of 
the urinary organs, but ' augments the venereal de- 
sires, favors erections and accelerates ejaculations.' 
Tea is liable to the same objections but in a less de- 
gree ; coffee should therefore be rejected altogether, 
and tea, if taken at all, be only at breakfast, and then 
weak and cool, or cold ; no drinks of any kind should 
be taken hot. Smoked or salt meats, game, the dark 



168 

meats, and all shellfish, dried fish, rich soups, hashes 
or stews or highly seasoned meat dishes ; all condi- 
ments, are improper. Except when severe exercise 
or work require it, meat should only be eaten once a 
a day, either at breakfast or dinner as may seem* to di- 
gest or agree best, and the white or young meats 
chosen when possible. Eoasting or broiling is the best. 
There is no objection to fats or butter if they are di- 
gested. Tobacco must not be used at all, and above 
all not chewed. 

On the other hand ; all the refreshing and cool- 
ing drinks are proper — as soda-water, lemonade, root 
beer, toast-water, weak flaxseed tea or barley water 
agreeably flavored, liquorice water, l eau sucre' — which 
is two or three lumps of sugar dissolved in a tumbler 
of cold water and flavored with orange-flower water, 
currant jelly dissolved in water, and the like. Choco- 
late and cocoa are free from objection if they agree 
with the stomach. 

Milk is, of all things, the most excellent, and in 
some cases it is for a time advisable to be confined 
to a strictly milk diet ; i. e. milk or its different pre- 
parations with rice, meal, bread, farina, arrowroot, 
&c, and they may be taken iced or merely warm. 
Milk alone will sometimes disagree, but it may be 
boiled and then taken cold or cool; sugar, salt, a 



169 

little black pepper, fruit jam or jelly, vary it agree- 
ably and make it set well. If it turn acid in the 
stomach a little calcined magnesia stirred into it, or 
lime water, will correct this. A raw egg stirred into 
any of the milk preparations while boiling hot so as 
to cook it at the same time, is very digestible 
when more nutriment is required. 

Sugar, all ripe fruits, especially strawberries and 
the juicy fruits ; bread, not hot or new ; all the fari- 
naceous articles of food ; boiled vegetables, the vege- 
tables usually eaten raw if they digest ; salad pre- 
pared with oil, a little vinegar and salt and very 
little other condiment, are all proper. 

Simple soups or broths, not hot, and eaten with 
bread or potato, for they seldom agree without some 
solid matter ; an egg boiled soft and eaten with plenty 
of bread ; fish boiled ; beef or mutton, lamb, veal or 
poultry, either boiled, roast or broiled ; all these things 
give rise to the least possible heat or excitement in 
their digestion. 

But there are two rules that should never be lost 
sight of, especially by invalids, viz. to thoroughly 
chew and mix every mouthful with saliva ; and, to 
drink as little as possible with a meal ; sometime after- 
ward thirst will come properly ; and, for the sake of 
15 



no 

the stomach and digestion the spittle ought always, 
when not poisoned with tobacco, to be swallowed at all 
times. 

Children should be allowed no tea or coffee nor any 
condiment but salt, even in health. Children, or pa- 
tients in the first stage should, for a greater or less time, 
be confined to farinaceous, vegetable and fruit diet, or 
perhaps even to a milk diet ; but scrofulous subjects 
must always be allowed a much more nutritive, and 
even stimulant diet, than others. 

In the second stage the diet should generally be 
pretty strict, but where much muscular exercise is per- 
formed meat at breakfast or dinner, or even at both, 
may be proper ; or where the patient is of a delicate 
constitution, or is much reduced. 

In the third stage a strengthening, or perhaps more 
stimulant diet, may be called for • the judicious use of 
condiments, good wine, or liquor ; governed very much 
by the capabilities of the stomach and requirements of 
the system ; though, generally, tonic medicine will 
have a great advantage over stimulant drinks of any 
kind. 

Exercise, as a rule, should be carried to the extent 
of moderate fatigue — producing a desire to go to bed 
for actual rest, and consequent sound sleep ; muscular 



m 

exercise, whether work, play or otherwise, should be 
in the open air as much as possible. But in weak or 
delicate individuals, or those in the third, or far ad- 
vanced in the second stage, real fatigue would often 
prove injurious, just as a severe or low diet would. 
Such should also rest for a time after a meal. They 
must use exercise with a prudent care ; if it become 
necessary to take rest during the day sleep is to be 
strictly guarded against ; it must be saved for bed- 
time. #> 

Riding on horseback or in a vehicle is never good ; 
when, on account of debility the latter is necessary, the 
seat should be of cane, or as little heating as possible. 
Gymnastic exercises are commonly recommended, but 
are not half as good as natural and wholesome out-door 
sports, walking, work, or other occupation. Hunting — 
not on horseback — is of all the most salutary in 
this disease, for, as J. J. Rousseau has well said, 
1 Diana is the enemy of love. ? And so true is this that 
persons exceedingly fond of sporting have been known 
to lose their venereal desires, in some instances to such 
a degree as, for the time, to amount to impotence. 

The rule as to exercise is to take as much as 
is borne without over-fatigue, and to increase it in 
proportion to returning strength. In the first stage 
it may always be pushed to actual fatigue ; in the 



172 

second, if there is much debility, or nervous symptoms 
are prominent, or there is excitability of the system, 
or of the bladder and seminal organs, any real fatigue 
will react injuriously, and exercise must be used with 
some moderation ; the complications attending the 
third stage require its nice adaptation to the circum- 
stances of each individual case. 
f 

Occupation of the Mind, in some agreeable or pro- 
fitable way, either by reading, conversation, or light 
occupation or responsibility that engages the mind or 
attention, is also of great service, subject to the same 
rules as muscular exercise as regards carrying it to 
the extent of fatigue. The judicious combination of 
these two kinds of exercise is especially productive of 
sound and refreshing sleep. 

But all such advice is most applicable to the 
two first stages. When the system is actually debi- 
litated, or the nerves l gone/ the mind weak or 
hypochondriac; ' when/ as Dr. Lallemand says, ' a man J 
is fatigued by the least exercise, how can we expect 
that he shall occupy himself with walking or gar- 
dening ? How can we desire him to go into society, 
when the simple presence of a woman intimidates him - 
and recalls all his former misfortunes ? How can we 
expect him to enjoy conversation, when he loses its 
thread every moment? When his memory leaves # 



m 

him, and when he feels his nullity? We persuade 
him to seek amusements and pleasures, but are they 
such to him? Is not the happiness of others his 
greatest punishment ? Because he is unable to follow 
our advice we accuse him of unwillingness, and we 
wish to compel him. Let us first remove the cause of 
our patient's disease, and we shall soon see that his 
character and conduct will change, and that he will 
return to his natural tastes and habits.' 

The Bed should be cool and hard ; a hair mattrass 
is the best of all, with a bolster of the same and just 
high enough to keep the head on the same plane with 
the body ; pillows should be dispensed with, and 
particularly feather pillows, which heat the head so 
much, are very objectionable in these cases. And the 
habit of lying with the neck bent to an angle with the 
body and the free circulation of the blood to and from 
the head impeded ; or sleeping in a half-sitting posture, 
are. bad. Seven hours sleep is, probably, the proper 
average ; some constitutions however doing better 
with an hour less and some with an hour more. It is 
better, if possible, not to go to bed till tired or sleepy ; 
and the rule should be strictly obeyed, to get up 
immediately on awaking. 

And the same holds with regard to garments ; 
flannel should not be worn next the skin; the panta- 



1*4 

loons ought to be loose, not too thick, and always 
lined. The head should be kept cool, the hair being 
cut short, and the hat a light one and kept o^f as 
much as practicable; also, whatever is worn round the 
neck ought to be loose, and light. Staying long in 
heated air is also to be avoided. 

Gold Bathing is a means of great value if judiciously 
employed; but it has, perhaps more than any other 
thing, been universally and indiscriminately recom- 
mended, and hence been productive of as much harm 
as good. It is really subject to about the same rules 
as are applicable to exercise, and which therefore need 
not be repeated; but tepid^or warm baths, will always 
be substituted with benefit when cold disagrees. 

It is a practice excellent beyond exaggeration to 
use children to the daily cold bath from infancy till 
they are old enough to take charge of it themselves ; 
and then, if necessary — which it rarely will be, to 
insist on its continuance. If a child is very delicate 
the chill may just be taken off, and be done in a warm 
room in very cold weather ; otherwise no such pre- 
cautions will be needed. My own children have been 
treated so from the age of a month or two ; not 
merely washed, but bathed in a tub, to their incal- 
culable benefit and great delight, the dislike only 
being at leaving the water, no matter how cold. 



175 

This, with a preponderating farinaceous diet, plenty 
of sunshine and out of door exercise, and being taught 
a little at home only till seven or eight years old, 
is infallible against masturbation during childhood 
or early youth ; and, with an intelligent vigilance 
against outside influence, a child so favored will grow 
up to the fullest development of his powers physical 
or mental, whatever that may be. 

Washing or sponging all over, every night, before 
getting into bed, is a most excellent thing for adults, 
is always applicable during the first and generally 
during the second stage, and is a good substitute 
when a bath cannot be had. It is very conducive 
to sound healthy sleep and is, I think, much more 
useful at night than in the morning as is sometimes 
recommended. In delicate subjects or where it is 
particularly desirable to insure reaction on the surface, 
a little salt may be added to the water ; for which 
purpose the unpurified, or rock salt, is the best. 
Either bathing, or washing in this way, is indispen- 
sable; it also insures cleanliness of the parts, which, 
in the female, is doubly important; and in her case 
heal ablutions should be practised in the morning 
also, but for this, generally, without the salt. 

When change of air or scene is>proposed a colder 
climate or locality should always be chosen. 



116 

- Marriage is, in this connexion, a question of grave 
importance, for it may lead to serious aggravation of 
the disease and sometimes to a fatal termination, 
insanity, or suicide; toward the deceived girl it is, 
at the best, an injustifiable cruelty. Yet it is the 
commonest thing to prescribe marriage, indiscrimi- 
nately, as a remedy for this disease. The advice, 
momentous as it is, seems to be given without a 
thought — to take a little tincture of iron, and get 
married. 

Physicians in general practice know literally nothing 
of the disease of masturbation; and they are not to be 
blamed for it: in medical schools it is ignored; patients 
rarely mention it to their doctor under any circum- 
stances, and would, as if by instinct, flatly and persis- 
tently deny it if hinted at by him. And again, if he 
has any practice at all he is seldom without cases of 
such importance, if not of life and death depending 
upon him, that he has neither time nor thought to spare 
for any speciality; nor would he generally have cases 
enough to yield him the necessary experience were he 
inclined to do so. The blame is therefore not so much 
in the want of knowledge as in not sending the case 
to, or calling in the assistance of those who have — and 
then, he cannot turn to an empiric. 

I have had many cases of seminal disease in married 



Ill 

persons ; some have told me that the internal excitation 
has urged them to the act of self-abuse even whilst 
lying beside their wife; in others nocturnal seminal 
emissions have steadily persisted, or returned when- 
ever the sexual act was hindered for a time; in many 
the natural act itself has been attended with a pain, or 
sense of heat or smarting at the moment of ejaculation, 
or continuing afterward, or has been followed by symp- 
toms or effects such as follow unnatural or morbid 
emissions. Many complain of great disappointment, 
absence, more or less complete, of the anticipated plea- 
sure of the act; or, diurnal emissions have set in, with ■ 
their sad consequences physical and mental. In some 
the individual had been married for years, and had 
children. 

Dr. Copland, after mentioning some very similar 
cases occurring in his own experience, says, ' This, and 
similar cases, have shown that marriage, which will 
prove a cure of the complaint in many instances, will 
not always prevent its occurrence, or remove it when 
it depends upon chronic irritation of the mouths of the 
seminal ducts, and upon congestion and enlargement 
of the prostate gland ;' and in the next paragraph re- 
marks that under sufficiently favorable circumstances 
1 marriage will generally bring about the healthy state 
of the sexual organs, if they be very moderately and 
16 . 



178 

regularly exercised at the promptings of sincere affec- 
tion in connection with sexual desire.' 'But it is 
always preferable that the complaint should be re- 
moved before the married life is commenced.' 

Dr. Lallemand observes, very truly, ' It is not long, 
in such cases, before we are embarrassed by questions 
about the propriety of marriage, being put to us: this 
is a matter which is serious in all its aspects, and on 
which the least scrupulous should not pronounce, with- 
out having had sufficient assurance of their patient's 
^ return to health. The question of our patient's health 
is not now the only one, nor is even his future happi- 
ness alone implicated; the fate of the innocent being 
who is about to be associated with him, is the matter 
of chief importance, and justice to her demands that 
we do not counsel matrimony, until sufficiently long 
proof has been given that our patient's re-establish- 
ment is permanent.' 

These are, perhaps, the highest modern authorities 
that can be cited, yet they throw no light upon the 
question when marriage may properly be recommended 
as a remedy for masturbation or its effects; and I can 
remember none that do ; whilst the opinion of some is 
very vague and quite useless as a guide. 

Yet, undoubtedly, marriage is sometimes the true 



179 

remedy and the only one that is required — whilst, 
sometimes, it is perfectly noxious. When, then, should 
marriage.be recommended; and, when should it be pro- 
hibited ? As the result of my experience, which has 
been long and extensive, it may be considered as a rule 
that marriage will prove remedial, for the male, at any 
time within the duration of the first stage — perhaps 
with a little preliminary cooling hygienic treatment; 
of course, provided the subject be of a proper age, and 
that he indulge ' very moderately and regularly, at the 
promptings of sincere affection, in connection with 
sexual desire;' — and these three points have a signifi- 
cance and importance of which few are aware. But, 
at any period after the accession of the second stage 
marriage will prove injurious, if not disastrous. It 
must not be thought of till the special disease has been 
cured and the general health re-established. I have 
brought many cases to this so desirable termination, 
and in a manner satisfactory to all concerned, as time 
has abundantly proved; and such truths ought to be 
stated, for I find they greatly confirm hope and encour- 
age confidence, which, in all these patients, need every 
help. 

In girls it will, as a rule, always prove the remedy; 
also in women where there is no disease of the neck of 
the womb, or where it has been cured; of course taking 
into account the general health. 



180 

THE MEDICAL TREATMENT. 

This part of the subject is one of peculiar interest to 
the patient because of the dangers by which he is as- 
sailed in his search for the competent and faithful 
assistance it needs ; to the true physician because of 
its complicated nature. 

First, then, in order to guard my readers against 
these dangers, I will make some cursory remarks des- 
criptive of the former; and then some few explanatory 
of the latter. 

The subject being one of such peculiar privacy and 
delicacy that it is not generally mentioned even to the 
nearest friend, it cannot be talked about; and herein 
lies the opportunity of the heartless charlatan. Re- 
course must be had to the newspapers, and there he 
can lay his snares with what art or ingenuity he is 
master of. 

Accordingly, in one column will be found self-styled 
doctors who promise cures in almost no time at all, 
and by means so simple and pleasant that it would 
seem almost a piece of good fortune to need their ser- 
vices; or medicines called ' cordials/ 'essences/ 'reju- 
venators/ etc., etc., of such amazing efficacy as to fall 
little short of miraculous — and persons are found who 
are as easily gulled as this. In another column a 



181. 

more dangerous snare is encountered; a pamphlet, 
letter, or little book is advertised to be forwarded to 
any one on receipt of a postage stamp or two. Now 
this will prove to be some very specious, and per- 
haps well-worded but utterly empirical production, 
sometimes so suggestive or immoral as to be ap- 
parently intended to excite to the very vices it pre- 
tends to censure, or merely teaching how to avoid the 
consequences of vice, and, at best, proving to be a 
mere advertising circular. Or perhaps a respectable 
looking book is purchased, which may turn out no 
better, being the same thing on a larger scale, with many 
quotations some acknowledged and some not, much 
superficially learned language and specious argument 
dressed in technical phraseology, all apparently conclu- 
sive to the reader who necessarily knows nothing of the 
subject; the whole being intended to prove that the 
author (?) who compiled the mass of quotations, com- 
monplaces and false statements, or who, as in two or 
three of them, employed other brains to get it up for 
him, is the only person in the country, if not in the 
world, who can cure the complaint: all this is literally 
true of several, and more or less of almost all. 

Passing over the extravagant promises of the ad- 
vertising ' doctors' and the various all-potent cordials 
and essences as unworthy of the notice of persons of 



182 

any intelligence ; also the promises to cure without any 
kind of local treatment at all but by the use of medi- 
cines % alone, as but loss of time at the very best; and 
the various emanations from self-constituted colleges 
and institutions as the most bare-faced imposture, in- 
asmuch as no real medical college in the world ever 
put forth anything of the kind; I would mention as 
dangerous beyond all, the different external appliances 
or instruments professing to cure seminal weaknesses 
or emissions at once, without any trouble or disagreable 
whatever. These things sometimes pretend to be the 
invention of some notable european professor, to have 
superseded everything else in their own country, to 
be, in fact, infallible, and to have been sent here from 
the purest motives of humanity: I suppose they pre- 
sume upon the weakening influence that self-abuse and 
seminal disorders have upon the intellect. 

Now, these things cannot cure, as any one who has 
read the description I have given of the nature of the 
disease — and which no real medical man will contra- 
dict, must at once see. But this is not the worst; 
their inevitable tendency is to aggravate the disease 
by inducing, in place of the obvious nocturnal emis- 
sions, the obscure and insidious internal emissions. 

There is a natural tendency, sooner or later after 
the establishment of the second stage, for the emis- 



183 

sions to begin to lose their spasmodic character, to 
occur with less and less erection and sensation, in a 
word, to degenerate into unconscious diurnal emis- 
sions, i.e., seminal gleet, or, under certain circum- 
stances, into- internal emissions, the most serious 
and dangerous of all the forms of seminal disease. 
And it is into this latter especially that all these con- 
trivances are so apt to bring the case. 

Numbers of instances are recorded in which persons, 
thinking to prevent the seminal discharges when abus- 
ing themselves, or to arrest the nocturnal emissions 
when awakened by it in time, and thus stop the loss of 
semen and save their strength, have resorted to the 
device of firmly squeezing or compressing the penis, 
close to the body; and after a time they have suc- 
ceeded — no more emissions have been seen; yet their 
health and strength have deteriorated even more 
rapidly than before. The natural process has been 
reversed; the semen has of course been nonetheless 
discharged, but it has gone backward into the bladder. 
And this is the very effect produced by the various in- 
struments or appliances referred to; the most obscure 
and obstinate, and in view of the probable conse- 
quences the most serious possible form of the disease 
being initiated. And the cruelly deluded patient 
thinking he is cured, when the almost inevitable hypo- 



184 

chondria, insanity, consumption or marasmus super- 
venes and proves utterly intractable, wastes away or 
rapidly dies, really of unrecognised internal seminal 
emissions. 

Of course it is not always thus; often, perhaps gene- 
rally, the instrument fortunately fails — has no effect, 
and is soon thrown by as useless. 

Although the cure of masturbation, or of the effects 
of excess, is possible in almost all cases — sometimes 
when all hope would seem to have fled; and certain, 
under a proper course of treatment, in the great ma- 
jority of cases, yet expectation of a quick cure must be 
dismissed as unreasonable. It is a disease, or associa- 
tion of diseases, that has been gradually brought 
about, has in many cases become as it were constitu- 
tional; its production has always been a matter of time, 
and its treatment must be more or less slow and 
gradual — time must also constitute one of the 
remedies; in ever so slight or early a case it will only 
be comparatively rapid, the cure will also be a matter 
of time. As Dr. Deslandes says, ' The physician who 
would attempt to hasten it by the employment of ac- 
tive remedies, would soon exhaust the system.' Pa- 
tience is necessary; when final success — a perfect cure, 
may be looked forward to with all confidence after it 



185 

had seemed doubtful or been utterly despaired of, 
surely the necessary patience can be commanded. 

Then, it is a complicated disorder ; even in the first 
stage the symptoms show how profoundly, though not 
yet permanently, the whole individual is affected in the 
physical powers, the digestion, the nervous system — is 
altered in the sexual feelings, the disposition, the tem- 
per. In the second stage some of these become actual 
diseased conditions ; and then also, certain parts of the 
seminal organs are more or principally affected, the 
manner and degree of which materially influences the 
treatment. The complications with other organs must 
also be understood, for they react upon the special dis- 
ease. And in the third stage other diseases are always 
established and must also be successfully combatted 
and removed. 

Then, again, Stricture may complicate the case by 
becoming really a prominent part of it, or be the only 
remaining and permanent consequence and give rise to 
a continuation of all the other symptoms, as explained 
in Chapter VI. ; or one of the forms of seminal gleet, 
or still worse internal emissions, may remain unsus- 
pected, as is there also explained. 

Now, if all this is true can anything but disappoint- 
ment, loss of invaluable time and of money result from 



18» 

trusting to empirics, cordials, curious contrivances, et 
hoc genus omne. Is it not, on the contrary, plain that 
no plan of treatment can be prescribed for one case 
that is at all sure to be proper, or that may not be ac- 
tually improper, for the next case. To attempt to lay 
down a plan of treatment would be censurable. 

There is one point on which a patient should be put 
right — it relates to the nocturnal seminal emissions. 
He very naturally supposes that when he is thorough- 
ly cured the emissions will cease altogether ; he is also 
led to suppose so by the professions of charlatans and 
nostrum-makers ; it will not be so, and must not be 
looked for as a proof of cure. Emissions do not always 
and necessarily imply disease, and that is one reason 
why they cannot be totally put a stop to. All the sem- 
inal organs, the testicles, prostate gland, and seminal 
vesicles are each, after the age of puberty, constantly 
engaged in the elaboration of their part of the secre- 
tion which, all together, constitutes the semen. Yet 
generally, if not always, in a person perfectly healthy 
both in body and mind and who has never provoked a 
discharge either by natural or unnatural means, this 
is so nicely proportioned as not to exceed the capability 
of re-absorption into the blood. But, when, by right or 
wrong means, the semen has been discharged, not only 
is the entire secretion at once and permanently aug- 



187 

mented both by the new stimulus from the mind and 
the need of increased quantity, but a habit or fa- 
cility of discharge is established— all which, of course, 
may be legitimate and healthy ; but the quan- 
tity continues, in some degree, to exceed the power of 
re-absorption ; and, the habit of throwing off any su- 
perabundance has, as may be said, been learnt. Such 
being the truth of the case, so long as it continues 
healthy and its natural and proper remedy cannot be 
availed of, an occasional nocturnal emission should 
really be considered favorable, for it proves a safeguard 
against diurnal emissions or seminal gleet — affections 
most to be dreaded. 

The question then comes to be — How is a healthy 
and laudable emission to be distinguished from a dis- 
eased and culpable one ? and, How often may it oc- 
cur compatibly with health ? 

When a nocturnal seminal emission is really the nat- 
ural relief of over accumulation it is energetic, ' accom- 
panied with a dream, complete erection and lively 
sensations' more or less well marked ; and, most es- 
pecially, is not succeeded by dullness or languor but 
rather by a sense of relief — the person even feels the 
better for it. 

With regard to frequency, governed by mode of liv- 
ing and associations, but most particularly by sexual 






188 

temperament, it may occur once in three to six weeks; 
seldom regularly ; the intervals may sometimes be 
very long, and then two are apt to happen quite near 
together. 

The natural and proper remedy above referred to for 
this state of things, is marriage. As Dr. Lallemand so 
well says, ' natural moderate exercise can alone give 
to the organs (internal) sufficient energy, and suffi- 
ciently regular habits to arrest nocturnal pollutions, 
and to prevent the occurrence of diurnal ones. No one 
would think of depriving a delicate child of exer- 
cise simply because he shows less disposition for it 
than his companions. Every one, on the contrary, 
would understand that it is the only means by which 
his weak constitution can be strengthened, if not ren- 
dered hardy. The same reasoning holds good in re- 
spect to the cases under consideration.' 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SEXUAL EXCESSES AND IRREGULARITIES. 

Sexual Excesses and Irregularities. — Capable of the same effects as 
abuse— What is excess — Causes disease in the same way that 
abuse does— Circumstances under which excesses are most hurtful 
— The more important described— Special causes of excesses — 
Sexual wants of the system— Difficulty of laying down a general 
rule— Imperfection of those heretofore given— Necessity of some 
rule to decide between moderation and excess— The only true 
rules— Sexual irregularities — How they are injurious— The more 
important and dangerous described— Facts deeply interesting to 
all, yet generally unknown. 

The subject of seminal diseases should not be con- 
cluded without taking into consideration the part that 
the various excesses and irregularities in the natural 
act itself plays in their production; for, although 
masturbation or abuse is by far the most frequent 
as well as effective cause, yet others do prevail exten- 
sively and are productive of much mischief. 

As the symptoms and consequences are pretty 
much the same, and the nature of the disease is 
identical, when once produced, let the cause have 
been what it may, it would be superfluous to repeat 



190 

them here. The difference exists only in the nature 
or character of the cause; the one, abuse or masturba- 
tion, is unnatural and vicious, cannot be right under 
any circumstances, and whatever effect it has is for 
mischief only; whilst the sexual act, under proper 
circumstances, is natural and virtuous and actually 
beneficial, and is only wrong and hurtful when in- 
dulged excessively or irregularly; and irregularity 
itself is hurtful just in proportion as it departs from 
what is natural and approaches in character to abuse 
or onanism. It would seem better to consider the 
subjects of excess and of irregularity separately. 

The first question that naturally arises is, What 
is excess ? Dr. Lallemand says, ' I consider venereal 
excesses to consist of all sexual intercourse carried 
beyond the actual wants of the system.' What the 
exact wants of the system are it is generally difficult 
to tell in any given case, and for many reasons. To 
lay down a general rule, then, is impossible, owing not 
only to the great diversity that exists in this respect 
amongst different persons, and even in the same per- 
son at different * times, but also to possible morbid 
reasons; and all of which is again affected by the 
kind of occupation, mode of living, and so on. This 
want can, however, always be determined by the 
individual for the time being, by a very safe and 
reliable rule which will be given hereafter. 



191 

I 
Excesses give rise to disease in the same way that 

abuse does, viz. : by exciting local irritation, which 
soon reaches the neck of the bladder, irritating the 
prostate gland and causing too frequent desire to 
make water, a symptom* always, and first of all, to be 
noticed; from this it extends to the other seminal 
organs. And thus a morbid desire is established; 
erections are more frequent, the desire more impor- 
tunate, and the individual may actually imagine that his 
organs and powers are growing stronger by exercise ! 
If, for any reason, he should now very much moderate 
or abstain from indulgence, nocturnal seminal emis- 
sions take place and add to the deception by ap- 
parently proving an actual need of intercourse. 
Yet it is but evidence of irritation — of commencing 
disease, and which may lead to the worst results. 
Still, in natural and legitimate indulgence there is 
much and wonderful compensation ; in abuse there 
is none whatever — the one is necessarily and inva- 
riably hurtful, the other rather possibly and occa- 
sionally. 

SEXUAL EXCESSES 

are most liable to occur, or to prove hurtful, under 
certain conditions or circumstances; and here again 
I will rather illustrate by quotations from eminent 
authorities, than by my own statements. 



192 

- The age/ Dr. Deslandes says, ' at which the vene- 
real power enters into full action, and when its 
exercise is attended with the least detriment has 
been generally determined on two distinct grounds; 
first, the physical aptitude for sexual intercourse; 
second, the general state of the organisation. The 
marriageable age has been fixed at an earlier or later 
period according as legislators have assumed one or 
the other of these bases. The first served as founda- 
tions for the matrimonial laws of the Romans; and 
probably the second served as a guide to Lycurgus, 
who prohibited men from marrying before the age 
of thirty-seven, and to Plato who recommended that 
every child born of a female younger than twenty 
years old or begotten by a man less than thirty years, 
should be branded with infamy. J. J. Rousseau too 
reasons in the same manner: ' until the age of twenty/ 
he says, 'the body grows and has need of all its 
substance : continence is natural, and if not observed 
it is at the expense of the constitution.' Although the 
physical aptitude for coition comes at the age of 
puberty, this fact proves nothing except that the 
genital organs can then be used. It does not follow 
that the genital power is fully developed or that 
the body is in the state most favorable for its use ? 

Particular circumstances in which the sexual act 



193 

becomes an excess. Dr. Deslandes again says, l When 
an individual suddenly changes his mode of living, 
and the influences to which he. has been exposed, 
and becomes subject to new influences, his health 
generally suffers to a certain extent. This is seen in 
the young man who comes directly from the pure 
air of the country into the confined atmosphere of the 
city, and in those who remove from the temperate 
to the torrid zone. The action of powerful causes 
of disease, of excessive heat, of deleterious exhala- 
tions, often adds to the simple change of habit. Thus 
all authors who have written on the diseases of warm 
countries, consider the act of venery as one of the 
most active occasional causes of yellow fever, of 
malignant fevers, of gjiolera morbus, and generally 
of the severe diseases contracted by Europeans. A 
similar disposition may be seen in young men who 
pass many hours in the infected atmosphere of hos- 
pitals, and particularly in dissecting-rooms, if they 
indulge with females or in onanism ; typhus fevers 
have been caused by it.' 

* The individual who lives in a filthy neighborhood, 
who experiences privations, who indulges to excess in 
wine or spirituous liquors, who labors hard either cor- 
poreally or mentally, who is deprived of sleep, who is 
affected with sadness, etc., bears the act of venery 
badly; it adds to the enervation already felt, and gen- 

n 



194 

erally robs the individuals of health. Venereal plea- 
sures should be abstained from during the prevalence 
of epidemics: every person is then disposed to the pre- 
vailing disease, and a single act of coition may pro- 
duce it.' 

' The influence of the act of venery is much more in- 
jurious, when the causes which we have mentioned, 
and generally all those which impair the constitution, 
have affected it to a greater or less degree. Diseases 
of long duration, if badly treated, excesses, and the 
causes mentioned above, may bring the system to such 
a state that enjoyments, even if seldom indulged in, 
may produce great suffering and disease. Venereal 
excesses may also create predispositions and change 
them as well as those which liave a different origin, 
into other morbid affections/ 

'Vanity, Dr. Lallemand observes, 'is perhaps the 
most common cause of venereal excesses. Man covets 
the esteem of his race; and especially that of woman, 
of whom he is the natural protector. It is when in the 
presence of woman that he is proud of his intellectual 
and physical superiority, and of his social position; 
but it is his virile power of which he is especially 
proud, and which he endeavors to prove — those who 
are the least strong in this respect, fear the most to 
allow their weakness to appear. Hence excesses 



195 

arise, which are not caused by the real necessities, and 
which do not spring from a violent passion. Young 
men who have given themselves up to the ardor of 
their passions soon after their marriage, endeavor to 
sustain the excesses with which they commenced. 
They dread causing a suspicion of coolness, or of infi- 
delity, though they very soon repent of their first im- 
prudence — their irritated organs being no longer in the 
physiological condition which at first permitted them 
to support excesses. If I may judge from the facts I 
have learned from patients, their venereal excesses 
have been caused more frequently by an unfortunate 
vanity than by an ardent attachment. I admit all that 
an exclusive and blind passion concentrated on one 
object is capable of; but this does not prevent the im- 
pulses of which I have just spoken from acting at the 
same time; it must even lend them more energy/ 

1 Excitement caused by an ardent attachment un- 
doubtedly exposes to great excesses, and it is not less 
evident that these excesses may become hurtful; but 
they are not so much so as if, were it possible, the 
same individual had committed them with perfect in- 
difference. This is easily explained by referring to the 
excitement which the whole economy receives from 
feelings of joy and pride/ 






With regard to the wants of the system in a sexual 



196 

point of view, these, as before remarked, may be very 
deceptive, and quite out of the power of the individual 
to form any just estimate of. The only wise and safe 
course to pursue when a person has inordinate, very 
frequent, or importunate venereal feelings, which he is 
conscious are tending*, or amount, to excess, is to dis- 
cover wherein lies the cause, and to have it remedied. 
1 The genital wants/ Dr. Lallemand says ' may be ficti- 
tious; a violent attachment may, in this respect, give 
rise to great illusions; the direct irritation brought on 
by external eruptions, by the presence of thread-worms 
in the fundament, may excite morbid erections which 
have no connection with the real wants of the system. 
Irritation in the lower and back part of the brain, the 
spinal cord, or the nerves supplying the genital organs, 
may produce the same effects, so that the frequency 
and duration of the erections will not always show the 
amount of the true powers. In many persons the de- 
sires are greater than the powers of fulfillment; the 
imagination of such is constantly occupied by erotic 
ideas whilst their physical powers are very little. The 
impulse in these persons is purely derived from the 
brain, and their immoderate desires cannot, therefore, 
furnish a measure of their real wants.' 

Many other states might be named; as, cracks or 
sores on the edge of the fundament; frequent accumu- 
lation of hardened stool in the lower gut, or the con- 



197 

tinual presence of hardened portions ; irritability of 
some part of the seminal organs in the male, or appen- 
dages of the womb in the female, induced by past ex- 
cess or abuse, or by some disease; holding the water 
too long — this is very noticeable in the morning when 
erections that "had been unyielding and urgent disap- 
pear at once on making water. In the female a variety 
of irritations and eruptions affecting the external parts 
or their proximity; collections of acrid secretion; un- 
due development of certain parts, may excite such feel- 
ings to a distressing degree. 

After what has been said some rule will naturally 
■ be asked for, by which any one who is desirous of acting 
prudently in a matter of such profound importance — 
in truth, of increasing and prolonging his capacity of 
enjoyment, and, in all human probability, of prolonging 
his life — may be guided. 

All kinds of rules have been laid down, especially 
by reformatory and other empirical philosophers, but 
generally with the radical fault of looking to the fre- 
quency of the act — a superficial view quite in keeping 
with the erudition of these gentry. Now, individuals 
differ so widely that the best rule of that kind, though 
of course it would be suitable to many, would over- 
tax some, and not satisfy others. I was intimate- 
ly acquainted with a medical student in" Paris who told 



198 

me he only indulged about twice a year, and that if he 
married he thought once a month ought to satisfy his 
wife. Another, a resident of this city, and whom I had 
known some years, told me that he had never omitted 
a single night since his marriage unless his wife's 
health actually prohibited him ; he had then been mar- 
ried many years and was having a large family ; and 
both of these persons were, I have every reason to be- 
lieve, in the enjoyment of perfect health. 

The only general rule that can be laid down, is, that 
it shall not exceed the real wants of the system — which 
wants can only be known by experience in each indi- 
vidual case. As Dr. Lallemand says, ' The following 
signs cannot be misunderstood, and are applicable ir 
all cases ;' and I cannot improve upon his own words. 

The following may therefore be taken as the rules 
whereby to determine moderation or excess. 

1 When coitus is followed by a sense of happiness, 
of general comfort, and of increased strength ; when 
the intellect is more acute, and the body more active; 
when an inclination to take exercise, or to engage in 
intellectual excitement is observed, together with in- 
creased activity of the genital organs, it is evident that 
an imperious want has been satisfied within the limits 
necessary to health. The happy influence all the or- 



199 

gans experience from the act is similar to that which 
follows the accomplishment of every other function 
necessary to the economy/ 

1 On the contrary — 

When coitus is followed by a feeling of sadness, of 
uneasiness, fatigue, or satiety; when heaviness of the 
head and a disposition to sleep occur, with confusion in 
the ideas and disinclination for exercise, it may be pre- 
sumed that the act has been too often repeated, or 
performed under unfavorable circumstances ; and erec- 
tions, however energetic, which occur soon afterwards, 
should be considered as excited by the commencement 
of irritation, and not by the return of the want/ 

These two rules are simple, intelligible, easy to re- 
member. 

He then goes on to say, that, ' It is only when coitus 
is followed by all these marks of debility, that it is in- 
jurious ; indeed, sadness, ill-temper, and regret are 
never shown, unless the act be too often or unseason- 
ably repeated. Such conditions, therefore, should be 
sufficient to show that there has been either excess or 
unfitness — which produce the same effects.' 

'These two classes of phenomena, however, are 
rarely of so striking a nature as I have just supposed, 
because, on the one hand, the want is seldom very im- 



200 

perious, and on the other, the excess is seldom very- 
great ; but at the same time there are few who have 
not experienced something analagous to the one 
case or the other. Cases intermediate between these 
extremes, constitute the ordinary course of life ; then 
coitus is followed by no remarkable phenomena, and 
hence we must conclude that in the majority of cases 
it is far from exciting the hurtful influence on the econ- 
omy that has been attributed to it.' 

SEXUAL IRREGULARITIES 

Are injurious exactly in proportion as they deviate 
from the natural act. The faults we have just been 
considering are to a certain extent natural, and are 
comparatively excusable ; but these are in no way 
natural, but highly censurable. They are, in kind, if not 
in degree, the same as masturbation or onanism, with 
the latter of which some of them are, properly speaking, 
identical. 

Variety. l Gregarious amours' partake both of the 
nature of irregularity and excess ; of irregularity in- 
asmuch as it is without doubt unnatural and most in- 
jurious in an intellectual and moral point of view — of 
excess as it leads to indulgence which is not really re- 
quired ; and even when fatigue, or an internal morbid 
condition, indicates abstinence ; and then proves di- 
rectly injurious. 



201 

After meals it is always better to abstain, for though, 
in many persons, a marked desire occurs at such 
times it must be classed amongst the deceptive or 
merely apparent wants of the system. Dr. Deslandes 
observes, ' We cannot say that they are then always 
injurious, as this would be contradicted by facts ; but 
that they frequently are is supported by the opinions of 
all authors who have written on the subject. The act 
of venery during digestion may injure in two ways. 
First, by deranging the digestive system, and by ex- 
posing it to the affections which are the usual conse- 
quences of such derangement. Secondly, by causing 
a general state of excitement, which adds to that 
caused by the digestive process. All the organs, as 
the heart, lungs, brain, &c, are, during digestion, in a 
state of excitement or congestion ; they are crowded 
with blood, as is indicated by a great number of 
symptoms. It can easily be imagined that venereal 
excitement under such circumstances may become the 
cause of inflammations and organic affections, or may, 
at least, contribute to their development ; by increas- 
ing also a congestion caused by an abundant repast, 
it may immediately excite severe and fatal symptoms. 
Instances of individuals who have died during the 
act of coition, after leaving the dinner table, are by no 
means rare.' 

Toying } without intention or possibility of gratifying 
18 



202 

the naturally excited organs, is a direct cause of dis- 
ease when often repeated and long continued. It first 
affects the testicle, which grows heavy and painful, 
exceedingly tender to the touch, its veins varicose and 
a pain running through the groin to the lower part of 
the belly — all this sometimes remaining hours before it 
subsides. Serious cases of seminal disease are recorded 
from this cause alone. I have been consulted in cases 
having no other origin. 

Drunkenness. i During complete intoxication,' Dr. 
Lallemand says, ' coitus is impossible, because the 
functions of the cerebro-spinal system are suspended. 
But when fermented liquors have produced effects short 
of stupefaction, when excitement is followed by a com- 
mencing weakness, with a disposition to somnolency, 
venereal excitement is frequently manifested, on the 
nature of which it is very easy to be deceived, because 
in this state nothing is feared. Indifferent erections 
occur. These may suffice to permit the commence- 
ment of coitus, but the sensibility of the genital organs 
is blunted, for the same reason that all other sensa- 
tions are vague and dull. The pleasurable feeling may 
be sufficient to keep up the erection, but does not suf- 
fice to produce that high state of excitement which is 
necessary for the accomplishment of the act. This dim- 
inution of sensibility then, renders coitus incomplete, 



203 

or retards its consummation, sometimes even render- 
ing- it impossible. It becomes evident, therefore, that 
such ineffectual efforts must favor the development of 
irritation in parts which are at the same time in a state 
of more or less active congestion.' 

1 Again, on the other hand, it is well known that fer- 
mented liquors irritate the genito-urinary organs, and 
that those who take them in excess frequently lose 
their virility. It is well known too, that drunkards are 
subject to chronic catarrh of the bladder, to engorge- 
ment of the prostate gland, pain in urinating, retention 
of urine and chronic gleet ; and I have before shown 
that wine is hurtful to patients laboring under seminal 
emissions.' 

1 Fermented drinks, then, taken in excess, produce 
an excitement in the genito-urinary organs, which is 
very likely to run into a state of permanent irritation, 
at the same time that they disturb the intellect, blunt 
all sensations, and prolong the efforts of coitus by post- 
poning the convulsive action which concludes the act. 
Hence it occurs that those tissues, already irritated by 
the direct action of the fermented liquors, are still more 
disturbed by the violent and prolonged action of such 
unsuitable efforts. It is not wonderful, then, that coitus 
under such unfavorable circumstances should often 
produce hurtful results.' 



204 

Imperfect erections; attempts at connection under 
such circumstances is a most direct infraction of the 
fundamental rule. In a well-balanced condition erec- 
tions are seldom urgent except in presence of the nat- 
ural stimulus, and at all other times are controllable ; 
but, if it happen in the lecherous and morbid condition 
of the brain so often induced, immoderate desire is felt 
to which the organ does not respond, or but imper- 
fectly. Various means are then devised by one or 
both parties to excite the desired state. It is doubt- 
less done in ignorance; but it is an ignorance almost 
universal. This ' weakness' is always a sign of the 
establishment of a diseased state which all such at- 
tempts inevitably increase. For remedying this stim- 
ulating food and drinks are consumed, and the various 
stimulating nostrums bought and swallowed, all which, 
exactly in proportion to the effect they have are so 
much ruination to the faculty they are taken to restore. 
Instruments are also indirectly advertised in the pa- 
pers, or secretly in little pamphlets &c, ultimately 
ruinous in their tendency, and founded on the gross- 
est ignorance, or knavery, or both ; a new one that 
was shown to me lately is of a character so utterly de- 
structive that I could not have imagined a man infam- 
ous enough to originate, or sordid enough to sell it ; 
yet both, I suppose, pass for respectable persons 
in this city. 



205 

Prolonging the act is very prone, by the too contin- 
ed engorgement which it causes, to produce irritation 
and subsequent chronic inflammation, whereby actual 
disease is established. 

The use of the condom for whatever reason ; also 
withdrawing before the completion of the act, are noth- 
ing more nor less than literal and unmitigated onanism. 
Their effect is, upon the mind, demoralising and de- 
basing, and on the female mind most fearfully so — yet 
there are men (?) who do not hesitate to subject even 
their own wife to such influence ; upon the body the 
effect is, slowly though surely, that of masturbation, in 
kind if not in degree. 

Lewd thoughts and conversation — the habit of allowing 
the mind to dwell on venereal subjects. There are per- 
sons who, quite above the commission of so foolish a 
crime against nature as masturbation, yet indulge, and 
even revel in the bawdiest imaginings. This is a form 
of abuse that must not be overlooked here, for it is 
chargeable with the most serious and even fatal effects. 
And it becomes the more important because no one 
seems to be aware of its true nature and consequences. 

This form of vice is well described by Prof. Hufeland 
under the apt name of Moral Onanism ; and, just as he 
says ; ' it is possible without bodily pollution ; but it 



206 

exhausts in a dreadful manner also. I here allude to 
heating and rilling the imagination with obscene and 
lascivious ideas, and a vicious and habitual propensity 
to indulge in such thoughts. This evil may, at length, 
become a real disease of the mind ; the imagination is 
then totally corrupted, and governs the whole soul : 
nothing is interesting to men subject to it, but what 
relates to lewdness ; the slightest impression of that 
kind excites in them a general fervor and irritation ; 
their whole existence is a continual fever, which weak- 
ens the more, as it always stimulates without gratifi- 
cation. This state may be found, above all, among vo- 
luptuaries who have abandoned sensual enjoyment, 
but who endeavor, by such mental indulgence, to make 
themselves amends, without reflecting that in its con- 
sequences it is almost equally destructive ; also in re- 
ligious celibacy, where mental onanism can assume 
the mark of fervid devotion, and conceal itself under 
the appearance of divine rapture and ecstacy ; and, 
lastly, among idle persons of the other sex, who, by 
novels and the like means, have corrupted their imagin- 
ations, and excited in them a propensity which is 
not unfrequently honored with the modish name of sen- 
sibility ; and who, under a stiff and severe outside, in- 
dulge often in the lewdest and most dissolute ideas/ 

I have known persons who, in all probability and 



201 

as evidently as symptoms could proclaim it, have died 
from this cause ; and I know others who will almost 
certainly meet the same fate — who even themselves 
profess to believe so. An instance of the former 
occurred in a gentleman a little beyond middle age, 
married, of most pleasing manners and a general 
favorite. Standing at his store door down Broadway, * 
no female at all attractive could pass without eliciting 
exclamations about her ankle, bust, and so on ad 
extremum. Treating him for a slight stricture at one 
time, every thing was always distorted into some such 
connexion. At the store he was daily visited by a 
knot of gray headed lechers who enjoyed his conver- 
sation. He thought he had some excuse in his wife, 
who, he said, was cold and unyielding. Of the latter, 
in a gentleman hardly middle aged, of good education 
and superior intelligence, married, and without any 
such excuse in his wife — though he seems to have 
inherited the vice from his father ; who is so haunted 
by obscenities that, as he has repeatedly declared 
to me, he could not resist it though he feared it would 
be the death of him. This gentleman, one of a con- 
genial group, has related to me monstrous and filthy 
scenes got up in brothels, on which occasions each 
of the party has paid ten dollars. Such are two of 
many I could mention; they alf differ only in details. 
It is a species of drunkenness, and holds its victim 



208 

as relentlessly; my duty is only to point out these 
diseases; if the symptoms and consequences are not 
moral enough, words would be wasted. 

The following quotations will fitly conclude this sub- 
ject : 

Prof. Hufeland says, 'It may, perhaps, be here asked, 
what is meant by excess in physical love ? My answer 
is, when either sex indulges that passion too early, 
before the body is completely formed — females before 
the age of eighteen, and males before that of twenty; 
when this enjoyment is too often and too violently 
repeated, which may be known by the following con- 
sequences : lassitude, dejection, and loss of appetite ; 
when one, by a frequent change of object and cir- 
cumstances, or by the artificial stimulus of condi- 
ments, heating liquors, and the like, excites new 
desires and the relaxed powers, or makes that ex- 
ertion during the time of digestion; and, to include 
the whole in a few words, when one enjoys physical love 
without marriage ; for it is only under the matrimonial 
tie, which excludes the stimulus of variety, and directs 
the physical propensity to a higher moral object, that 
this passion can be physically refined, that is to say, 
be rendered salutary and useful.' 

The following excellent and valuable observations 



209 

are quoted by Dr. Carpenter in his 'Human Physi- 
ology,' from a little work published in London, en- 
titled 'Be not Deceived. 7 'When the appetite is 
naturally indulged, that is, in marriage, the necessary 
energy is supplied by the nervous stimulus of its 
natural accompaniment of love before referred to, 
which prevents the injury which would otherwise arise 
from the increased expenditure of animal power ; and 
in like manner also, the function being in itself grate- 
ful, this personal attachment performs the further 
necessary office of preventing immoderate indulgence, 
by dividing the attention through the other sources of 
sympathy and enjoyment which it simultaneously 
opens to the mind. But when the appetite is irregu- 
larly indulged, that is in fornication, for want of the 
healthful vigor of true love, its energies become ex- 
hausted, and from the want of the numerous other 
sympathetic sources of enjoyment in true love, in 
similar thoughts, common pursuits, and above all, 
in common holy hopes, the mere gross animal gratifi- 
cation of lust is resorted to with unnatural frequency, 
and thus its powers become still further exhausted, 
and therefore still more unsatisfactory; while, at the 
same time, a habit is thus created, and these jointly 
cause an increased craving ; and the still greater 
deficiency, in the satisfaction experienced in its indul- 
gence, further, continually, ever in a circle increases 



210 

— the habit demands indulgence, consequent exhaus- 
tion, diminished satisfaction, and again demand, — vtill 
the body and mind alike become disorganized/ 



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